If you would open your Bibles
with me to Psalm 143. Psalm 143. Made this announcement Wednesday,
but in case you were not here to hear it. Our brother Tom Harding
is being diagnosed with prostate cancer. It is the aggressive
form of cancer. From what we know so far. They're
still going to run a few more tests before they decide on his
treatment, Remember him and that congregation in prayer. Psalm
143. Hear my prayer, O Lord. Give
ear to my supplications. In thy faithfulness answer me,
and in thy righteousness. And enter not into judgment with
thy servant. For in thy sight shall no man
living be justified. For the enemy hath persecuted
my soul. He hath smitten my life down
to the ground. He hath made me to dwell in darkness as those
that have been long dead. Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed
within me. My heart within me is desolate.
I remember the days of old. I meditate on all thy works.
I muse on the work of thy hands. I stretch forth my hands unto
thee. My soul thirsteth after thee as a thirsty land. Hear
me speedily, O Lord. My spirit faileth. Hide not thy
face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the
pit. Cause me to hear thy loving kindness in the morning, for
in thee do I trust. Cause me to know the way wherein
I should walk, for I lift up my soul unto thee. Deliver me,
O Lord, from mine enemies. I flee unto thee to hide me.
Teach me to do thy will, for thou art my God. Thy spirit is
good. Lead me into the land of uprightness. Quicken me, O Lord, for thy name's
sake. For thy righteousness' sake,
bring my soul out of trouble. And of thy mercy, cut off mine
enemies, and destroy all them that afflict my soul, for I am
thy servant. All right, let's stand together
as Chris leads us in singing our call to worship. The rock that stands forever
is Christ my righteousness. In him I stand unfearing in everlasting
peace. Christ is my boat and glory. All wrath for me is o'er. The judgment of the sinner, it
frightens me no more. There is no condemnation, there
is no hell for me. The turmoil and the fire I, I
shall never see. For me there is No sentence for
me there is no sting For Christ my Lord to save me Will shield
me with His wing No angel nor a devil fear nor flight, no foe,
no tribulation, no throne, nor path, nor knife, no height, no
No creature that hath been or can be Can pluck me from thy
bosom, can sever me from thee. My heart leaps up in gladness,
grief cannot linger there. Her voice sing high in glory,
bathed in the sunshine there. ? The fountain of my singing
? Is Jesus there above ? The sun that shines upon me ? Is
Jesus at his love Okay, you can be seated now, and if you would,
take your hymnal, and we're gonna sing Be Thou My Vision, song
334, Be Thou My Vision. ? Be thou my vision, O Lord of
my heart ? Not be all else to me, save that thou art Thou my
best thought, by day or by night, Waking or sleeping, Thy presence
my light. ? Be Thou my wisdom and Thou
my true word ? I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord ? Thou
my great Father, I a true son ? Thou in me dwelling and thy
with thee one. Riches I heed not, nor man's
hymns be brave. Thou my inheritor, thou and only. Thou art the only first in my
heart. High King of Heaven, I treasure
Thou art. ? High King of heaven, my victory
won ? May I reach heaven's joy, oh bright heaven's sun ? Heart
of my own heart, whatever befall ? Still be my vision ? O ruler
of all ? If you would, open your Bibles
with me to Psalm 2. John has asked that we read Psalm
2. Why do the heathen rage and the
people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves
and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against
his anointed, saying, let us break their bands asunder and
cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision.
Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in
his sword displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my
holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree. The
Lord has said unto me, thou art my son. This day have I begotten
thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee
the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the
earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a
rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's
vessel. Be wise now, therefore, O ye
kings. Be instructed, you judges of
the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son, lest he be angry,
and you perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put
their trust in him. Thank God for his word. Let's
bow together. Our great father, our holy, sovereign,
just, wise, and merciful heavenly father. Father, we bow before you this
morning, daring only come into your thrice holy presence in
the person of your dear son, pleading his obedience as our
only righteousness, pleading his blood as the only forgiveness
of our sins. Pleading his death is the only
hope we have of eternal life. Pleading his resurrection is
our resurrection. Oh, Father, how we beg of you
that when you look at us, you don't see us, but all you see
is your darling son. And we come to you in his name.
And Father, it's for his glory that we pray that you might enable
us this morning to worship you in spirit and in truth. I pray
that you'd be with our Dear Brother John, as he comes to bring the
message to us that you've laid upon his heart. Father, uphold
him with thy spirit. Speak to his heart and open his
lips that he may, in clear and simple terms, preach to us Christ
the Savior. And Father, enable us to hear,
to hear with the ear of faith and in awe and wonder. Worship
and trust and believe and rest in Christ our Savior. Let his
name be exalted in everything that is said and done here today.
Father, we thank you for bringing John our way again. Thank you
for the years of fellowship we've had and what he and his family
mean to us. And Father, I pray your continued
blessing be upon him, that you'd bless him richly, him and his
whole family. Father, for those who are hurting
and sick and need you especially, there's so many that that we
know of and father, those that we don't, that you might undertake
in their behalf to deliver, to heal, to meet their need richly
according to your power, the riches of your mercy and grace
and father above all that you may comfort their hearts with
your presence until you bring them out of the valley. All these
things we ask in that name, which is above every name, the name
of Christ, our savior. Amen. I thought this morning how it
is that I might, I'm not introducing John Chapman to this congregation.
He needs no introduction here. But I thought about John. And you know all the men who
come here to preach, I love them, they're dear to me. I know they
preach the gospel or else I wouldn't invite them to preach. But John's different. He's different. I just, I can't express too much
appreciation and affection for him. You know, we wouldn't have
a church here if it wasn't for John. Humanly speaking, we wouldn't.
He is my pastor for eight years, and I appreciate him and love
him dearly. And he's been preaching in Lexington
this weekend at the conference, and I kind of hesitated to call
him. He's preaching Friday, he's preaching
Saturday, and asking him to drive here and preach, but I thought,
well, he can say no if he wants to. And he just very graciously
said how much he'd love to come. And John, we love having you
here. More than you like being here, I can tell you that. But
it's been a big weekend for John. He preached and traveled. And in case maybe you didn't
see it or know about it, on Friday evening, John baptized his daughter,
Madison. Any time the Lord brings one
of his own to them and they confess Christ, it's special, isn't it?
My grandfather is blessed of the Lord to baptize his granddaughter.
Now, I don't care who you are. It is a special service. It's been a big weekend for him.
And John, I pray the Lord strengthen you and bless you. You come bring
the gospel that the Lord's laid on your heart to us. Glad to be here. Good to see
you. About two weeks before I turned
50 years old, I think it was a week or two before I turned
50, in October, this group came together, there's 10 of us. In
October, I'll turn 69, 19 years ago. It's going to buy so fast. And
I was sitting over there thinking, I won't see another 19. I'll
be 98, and that's around 97. I doubt that. But this place,
you know, Vicki and I reminisce. And we get homesick. I've been
down there now going on eight years. And Ashland will always
be home. This will always be home. And
we reminisce a lot. I said to her the other day,
I said, I don't know what it is about the fall of the year,
but it makes me homesick. I said, it makes me want to go
back home. But this is home. I said I was going home once
to the people down there, and they said, you are home. I said,
that's my second home. This is my first one. And I remember, I have to say
this, I remember Cecil asked me about how I wanted the podium
made. And I told him how I wanted it
made. And he made it too tall, which doesn't take much for that
to happen. But it was about up to here. I said, Cecil, that's too tall. He said, what about when Todd
comes to preach and Charlie? He named off these tall preachers.
I said, well, I'm not going to ask tall preachers no more. And that came in the next week,
and he had it cut down. But now it needs to be tolerated. Turn to Psalm 2. I want to talk a little bit about
God's King. I find myself, as I've gotten
older, talking about, in my messages, the King of glory, the reign
of Christ, and death. I was preaching at Gabe's in
Kingsport here not too long ago. A lot of young people there.
And I said, I understand why you young people like to have
a younger pastor because he doesn't talk about death as much as us
old ones do. But I seem to talk about those two things because
they're so real to me. The reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why I can go home And
all the turmoil that's going on right now in our country,
the political landscape, I can go home, sit down, and find great
comfort. I have no trouble going to sleep
at night. Because when I go to sleep, I
know this, he that keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.
He is on guard 24-7. He's watching over my house.
He's watching over all his children. You are protected. You could
not, you could not be more protected than if you were surrounded by
the United States military and you were in the center of it.
They could not protect you nearly as much as the King of Glory. I said at my mother's funeral
here a couple weeks ago, I said, my God controls everything. Not even a gnat can fly into
my eye without his permission. That gnat has to have permission
to fly into my eye. He says, all the hairs of your
head are numbered. Do you know your children that
well? No. He does. He does. I wish we could get a hold of
how precious we are to him. We are so precious to him. You
know, When God created the heavens and the earth, he created them
perfect. He created a garden called Eden.
Then he created a man called Adam. He put Adam in that garden
and he made Adam king. over all of this. He said, have
dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air, the
beasts of the field. Have dominion over them. If Adam had not fallen,
he would still be king right now of this creation. But he was only a type of the
king of kings and lord of lords. He was only a type. But Adam,
and this is astounding, but God in wisdom allowed all this to
happen in one man so that salvation would happen in one man. We fell
in a representative, we are saved in a representative. I see the
wisdom of God in that. I see the wisdom of God. But
Adam rejected God as his sovereign. You know, you and I, you and
I were born from parents, not Adam. If anyone understood creation,
And if anyone understood as God is their creator, it was Adam.
He had no parents. God was his parents. And he rebelled
against God. God gave it all to him, had dominion
over all of it. It was all perfect. He didn't
have to do anything. He said, just dress and keep
it. And he rebelled against God. And we have, by nature, every
man, every woman, has been rebelling against God ever since. You go
over to 1 Samuel 8. And Samuel is the judge over
God's people, Israel. And you know what they said to
Samuel? Give us a king like the other nations. We want to be
like them. We want to be like our neighbors.
That's what you call keeping up with the Joneses, isn't it?
That's where that came from. We want to be like the other
nations. And God said to Samuel, because Samuel displeased him.
He took it personal. And God said to Samuel, he said,
Samuel, they have not rejected you. They've rejected me. They don't want me to be their
king. They've rejected me as their
king. And I'm going to give them a king. I'm going to give them
a king that they want. And if you read the king that he gave
him, Saul, it starts out, he'll take your sons, your daughters.
He takes, he takes, and he takes. But the king that God has given
to us, the king of glory, he gives, and he gives, and he gives. You know that Jesus Christ didn't
do one thing for himself when he walked on this earth for 33
years. He did everything, everything he did, he did for his children,
his kingdom, his subjects, He even fought their battle. What
king does that? You know, kings usually, they
get up on the hill, and they look at the battle, and then
they try to orchestrate the battle. Our king took all of his subjects,
put them out of the way, and took the battle on himself. He
fought our battle. He fought our battle. That's
our king. That's our king. There's no king
like our king. You know, we've lost the idea
of what it is to have a king because we've had presidents.
That's all I've ever known. And for, what, 300 years or so,
we've had presidents. We've lost the idea of what a
king is. But we have a king. We have a king. Now, I'll vote
in November. I mean, I'll do that. But I also
know this. My king has already chosen who's
going to be in that seat. If this country stands for another
47 presidents or 48 however many, you know they're already chosen?
They're already chosen. God's chosen every one of them.
Our king has chosen every one of them. There's no power that
exists that he doesn't establish. Pilate said to the Lord, he said,
don't you know I have power to release you and I have power
to crucify you. And that's when the Lord spoke
up. See, he was silent up to then. It's like, oh, you've overstepped
your bounds. Yeah, I'm gonna straighten you
out right here. You have no power at all except to be given to
you from above. That's where your power comes
from. And so here we have in this chapter
God's king. Now we have man's reaction to
God's king because man wants to be his own sovereign. Man
wants to be his own God. You know it says over in the
Psalms they said no God for me. The fool has said in his heart
and he is a fool for saying this. No God for me. In other words
there is no God. No God for me. I'll be my own
God. Thank you. Now we'll have God creating the
world. We'll have God giving us sunshine. We'll have God giving
us rain. But whenever God exercises his
sovereign right in my home, in your home, in the home of everybody,
that's when you see, that's when you see this rage come out. Until
he saves you. Then you bow to the king. That's
when you bow. when he saves you, when he makes
you willing in the day of his power. Our king is able to, you
know, you and I, we're not hard enough to crack. I've learned
this, it's never, you know, whatever situation I'm in, if it's a very
difficult situation, it's not a matter of God's power, it's
a matter of God's will. It's a matter of God's will.
Now he says here, why? Do the heathen rage? And he put
it correctly. You see all this that's going
on today throughout the world, that's just the heathen raging
against God's reign. Why do the heathen rage and the
people imagine a vain thing, a futile thing? Here's the question. Why do the nations, the nations
rage? This shows here that the whole
world, the whole world stands against God's King. The whole
world hates God's King. You know, the Bible's right. If you really wanna know how
people feel about God, read the Bible. Don't ask them, because
they'll say, well, I love God. Not the God of this Bible, you
don't, unless God saved you. Now, if God saved you, you love
the God of this Bible. You love the Lord Jesus Christ.
Peter said, Lord, you know all things. You know I love you,
but until that happens, you and I don't love him. We were not
born into this world loving God. You know what scripture says?
That we have a natural enmity in our minds against God. That
word enmity means a natural hostility, a natural hostility against God.
But here's the question, why do the heathens rage? What do
men have to rage about? Seriously. Sun shines every day
on the just and the unjust. It rains on our garden and it
rains on their garden. You're gonna go home after this,
you're gonna eat. How many people are gonna go
out to eat today? Throughout this country. You're
eating God's food. He could starve you to death
and have every right to do it. He could send a famine. God could
send a famine and be right in doing so. All the blessings of
this day is God given. Our king has given it to us.
And yet, men hate God. What do men have to rage about
when it comes to God? What's wrong with holy? Tell
me, what is wrong with holy? Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
God Almighty. I'm glad God's holy. You know
the scripture says give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.
I'm glad he's holy. You know why? It means he'll
do right. He'll do right. The judge of
the earth will do right. God is love. What's wrong with
that? Now he's not this mooshy mooshy love that preach today,
but God is love. And if you want to know what
that is, go read 1 Corinthians 13. There's the love of God.
That's the description of God's love. God is merciful. God is gracious. God gives us
the air we breathe, the food we eat. What do men have to rage
about? Man's rage is unreasonable. There's
no ground for it. Why do they rage? This has the idea of a sea in
a storm. You see how the sea rages when
a hurricane is on it? That's the idea here. Why do
they rage and foam like the sea does? They have nothing to rage
about. Their rage is unreasonable. But
the first reason is this, and I've already hinted at it. It's
that natural enmity that's against God. No matter how blessed a
man is, his mind is still hostile to God. It doesn't matter how
blessed he is. You let it rain and his golf
game is messed up and he starts complaining. All complaints is
against God. The weather is God's weather.
It's not mother nature. It's God's weather. The temperature,
I've learned this. I've learned to shut up when
it rains. Thank the Lord for it. If it's hot, and it gets
hot down south, it's the Lord, He determines the temperature.
It's His wisdom. Why would I complain when the
infinite wisdom has ordered the day? He's ordered the day. Thank you, Lord. I don't know
what's going to be accomplished today, but it's going to be accomplished,
and it's going to be accomplished according to His eternal purpose,
and it's for our good. Everything going on right now
in your life, in your community, Everything. It's for your good. And our king has ordered it so.
That's one of the things that I, one of the reasons I do, and
there's not a lot to say about growing old, other than my mother
always said it ain't for sissies. But one of the things that I
do, I do, I'm thankful for, put it this way, I'm thankful for
this. There's a quiet calmness that comes with growing in grace
and in knowledge of Christ that I didn't have when I was young.
I didn't have this. And now there's a pulse that
I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. You know, it's a learned behavior.
It's a spiritually learned behavior. And there's a quietness there
that I never had 25, 30, 40 years ago. 40, going on close to 50
years ago. I'm thankful for it. Now that
part of aging I like. That's good. But man has no reason to rage. But he does because of that enmity.
And then secondly, man is born dead and trespasses and sins.
He's spiritually dead. He's spiritually dead. The life
of God's not in him. We have this natural life, this
human life, but we don't have the life of God until God saves
you. Then you have the life of God
in you. You're made partakers of the divine nature. That's
what the scripture says. But man is born dead in trespasses
and sins, and he cannot know God because of that. Not in his
natural state. He can't do it. He has nothing
to put it in. You put new wine, he says, in
the new wine skin. You don't put new wine in the
old wine skin, it'll burst. You can't put truth in that old
nature. It won't receive it. You can't
handle it. You start trying to humanly make
everything sound logical. Well, it's not. You're not going
to make logic out of it. God said my ways are higher than
your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. Now you're not gonna logically
figure that out and make it work. Man's dead, God is light, man
is darkness, God is truth, man's a lie. And he says darkness won't
come to the light unless this deed be reproved. And then thirdly,
all men, high, low, rich, poor, educated, uneducated, they despise
God's way of salvation. God's way of salvation is Jesus
Christ alone. It's not what I do with Him.
It's Christ alone. Jesus Christ is not in my hands.
I'm in His hands. I was telling them last night,
it's not my faith that makes what He did effectual on Calvary's
tree. Who He is makes what He did effectual.
That's what makes it effectual. It's who He is. And if he did
that for me, God's gonna save me. God's gonna save me. He has to. There's nothing against
me. The law will satisfy me. The scripture says that he
was despised and rejected of men. Man of sorrow is acquainted
with grief. The Lord Jesus Christ, God's
way of salvation, God's way of grace, and not works, man hates. This is human nature. We want
everything free but salvation. If I give you a house, you're
not going to turn it down. You're going to say thank you. Give you a new car, you see when
they win a new car on TV, they jump up and down like they're
crazy. Take anything free except salvation. No thank you, I'll work for that
one. And that's the one thing, listen, that's the one thing
that's free and everything else you have to work for. Everything
else you and I have to work for, except salvation. That's the
work of God. That's His work. Then He said
in verse 2, and I'm going to hurry on through here. The kings
of the earth set themselves, they're set against Him. They
are set against the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, we see some of these
things. Let me get a drink here. We see some things that our government
legislates in morality. You know what that is? That setting
themselves against God, that setting themselves against the
king of glory and his rule of standard, his standard of morality,
that setting themselves up against him, Satan behind every bit of
it. Every bit of it. The kings of the earth set themselves
and the rulers take counsel to gather against the Lord and against
his anointing. We see that in Christ and Pontius
Pilate and Herod. They all stood up against him.
We see that. This is the prophecy. They set
themselves determined to kill him out of envy. They had to get witnesses to
lie on him. But it's a prophecy how Christ
will be received, how he's gonna die. It says in Acts 4.26, the
kings of the earth stood up and the rulers were gathered together
against the Lord and against his Christ. But you know what
they did? They only did what God determined
to be done. I have learned over the years
that though I don't understand what's going on, it's going on. by the will and purpose of God.
He's orchestrating every bit of it. He's orchestrating every
bit of it. You know, Satan is not a
loose cannon out there running around and causing havoc. He's
only doing what God's allowed him to do, to bring about his
eternal purpose, which he purposed in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the comfort of the gospel. And here's what the kings and
the rulers want to do. Let us break their bands asunder. That's what they said. They want to be God. They don't
want God's rule and authority over them. Let us break their
bands. And it's interesting, their bands,
Father, Son, Holy Spirit, the Trinity. Let us break their bands
asunder and cast away their cords from us. You know, true Christianity is
hated. Now, this false Christianity
that we got in this country, it's not hated. It's just the
true Christianity. And I'm not going to throw away
a Bible word because they were first called Christians at Antioch.
I'm not going to throw away a Bible word just because a bunch of
knuckleheads take it and drag it through the mud. God's word
is God's word. And they have, but they have
taken the truth and they've turned it into a lie. That's what they've
tried to do. And if they could, now listen,
if they could, even in this country, they'd get rid of this, the true
gospel, they'd get rid of it. They'd keep all the other junk,
they'd get rid of this. They would, that's what man is,
that's what he is. He says, let us break their authority,
their control over us. They want the power that belongs
to the king of glory. That's what they want. No restraints. Do we not see that today? No
restraints, don't. People wanna, they wanna call
their own shots. They wanna be their own standard.
Don't tell me what's right and wrong. As long as I'm not bothering
you. You know, what's the problem?
I'll tell you what's the problem. God's on the throne. And God's
holy. And God's the standard. God is
the standard. Why callest thou me good? He
said to that rich young ruler, there's none good but God. He's
the standard of good. You all know, you all been well
taught, you know this. You know, our standard of good
is if it works. You know, I had a machine shop and they were
make a part and he'd say, is this good enough? I'd say, does
it work? It's good enough. God's standard of good is perfect.
Perfection. And I'm glad it's so. I'm glad
it's so. I don't have to look over my
shoulders and see if anything's coming down the road. God has
taken care of all of it. And then listen, he that sitteth
in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. God shall laugh. He shall laugh. You know how laughable it is
when a man thinks he's gonna dethrone God? That's pretty laughable,
isn't it? That'd be like a two-year-old
trying to dethrone you. And then notice he says, God
siddeth. He siddeth. You know, heaven is not in unrest
over all this. God is not, you know, God is
at rest. God is at rest. He's not disturbed. Now, He has spoken in language
like, you know, it speaks of Him as being angry, but not like
you and I who are slamming doors and kicking stuff. That's not
the kind of anger it is. It shows us God's displeasure
with sin. But now, God's not tore up. God's at rest. Christ is seated. Our king is seated at the right
hand of power. It's all under his thumb. He's
at rest. He says to one, go, and he goes.
He says to one, come, and he comes. He says to a devil, come
out of him. And whether he likes it or not, he's coming out. You
ever read of one in the gospel saying, no, I'm not? I'm not
coming out. Oh, yes, you are. All he does
is they come out. And what they do? They come out.
You know why? Where the word of a king is,
there's power. If he speaks life to someone
here, you're gonna live. You're gonna live. You'll have
them in derision. He'll mock them. God will let
them set up their artillery and then use it on themselves. I'll
tell you a good example of that one. Haman. He built a gallows
for Mordecai and I'm gonna hang him. I hate that man who got
hung on it. Haman did. Moses! And what the providence of God. Moses is raised up in Egypt right
at the feet of Pharaoh. He's right there at the height
of Egypt. He has all the power at his feet.
And then what happens? God puts him on the backside
of a desert and he comes back in and he becomes the destroyer. He delivers Israel. Pharaoh raised
up his own destroyer. What about our Lord, when they
took Him to the cross, and they nailed Him to the cross, and
you know what they thought? They got Him. You know where
He's at? On the throne. He's on the throne. That's where our King is. He's
on the throne. Then shall He speak unto them
in His wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure. You know,
judgment's coming. Judgment's very real. He's giving
this world a little taste of it, Sodom and Gomorrah, the flood,
Noah's day. Judgment's coming. When men have
played their games long enough, God'll speak. God'll speak. And that's all he needs to do
is speak. Yet, he says, have I sent my
king? And that's past tense. We're
not gonna vote on him. You're going to vote in November.
There'll be nobody voting on this king. God set him up before
creation. God set him up in eternity past.
He set him up in that covenant of grace. He set him up to be
king, and he will be king forever. He'll be our king forever. And
you know what we say? Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I've sent my king upon my holy
hill of Zion in spite of man's rage, in spite of man's rebellion. Guess who's king? The one that
they despised and rejected and said, we will not have this man
reign over us. Well, guess who's reigning over
us? That man. That man. He's our king. Man's rage cannot stop the purpose
of God. Jesus Christ is king forever.
You know where he reigns? It says he reigns from Zion.
You, he reigns from the church. His power, just right now, the
gospel being preached, Christ is being preached, Christ being
lifted up. And if he will, he can conquer
the hardest person in here with just his word being preached. His power goes forth out of Zion,
the power of the gospel. It goes forth out of Zion. Yet
have I set my king on my holy hill of Zion. And he says in
verse seven, I will declare the decree the Lord has said to me,
thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. The son of God
is our king. He's our king. And this decree
will not change. It'll not change. Now he said,
ask me. Oh, I like this verse. Ask me, and I shall give thee
the heathen for thine inheritance. Give me, John. Give me, Frank. Father, I will, that they be
with me. Those whom thou hast given me,
that they be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory.
The glory I had with you before the world was, but Father, I
will. You can't say that. You know what you and I say?
Father, thy will be done. But this king looks God Almighty
in the face and says, I will, that they whom you've given me.
And he can name every one of them. I mean, it's a number that
no man can number, but he can name every one of them. And he
asked for them. Ask me for them. And I'll give you the heathen
for thy inheritance and the uppermost parts of the earth for thy possession.
All of it belongs to him. All of it belongs to Him. The
earth is the Lord, the fullness thereof, and they who dwell therein.
It all belongs to Him. Those who believe and those who
don't believe belong to Him. They belong to Him. I know in
present day preaching and Arminianism, they put Christ in your hands.
God put us in His hands. He's the mediator. He's the King.
He's the Savior. He's God. He's God. Everything our Lord does, everything
our God does, He does for the sake of His King, for Christ's
sake. You know, He forgave me for Christ's
sake. He didn't forgive me for my sake. He forgave me for Christ's
sake, because Christ died for me. And for Christ's sake, He's
forgiven me. He says, thou shalt break them
with a rod of iron, and thou shalt dash them in pieces like
a potter's vessel. Who's it say here? It says thou. I said the battles is. The battles
is. You'll dash them all to pieces.
Every knee's gonna bow. Every, there's about eight billion
people in the world today. How many billions have already
lived? And however many shall live. Every person In this room,
in this world, that's in the grave, and that ever shall be,
every last one of them is going to get down on their knee. They're
going to get down on their knee and confess that he's Lord to
the glory of God the Father. That's going to happen. I thank
God he enabled me to do it almost 50 years ago. But it's going
to be done, willingly or unwillingly. It's going to happen. Be wise
now, pay attention. Listen to God's preacher. Listen
to your pastor. Be wise now, therefore, O ye
kings. Be instructed, ye judges of the
earth. You can't take on the almighty and win now. Don't be, you know, stupid might not be
a good word, but don't be stupid. You can't take on God. Bow to,
kiss the sun. That's what he says here, kiss
the sun. Kiss the son. It said in verse 11, serve the
Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. I like what this one
person says and I'm gonna close. One writer wrote, rejoicing without
fear is presumption. Fear without rejoicing is despair. Put them both together and you
have worship. You have worship. Now kiss the
son. It all comes down to this. Kiss
the son. Lord enable me to kiss you this
morning. Kiss the son, lest he be angry. Doesn't sound like this little
Jesus being priest in our day, does it? Lest he be angry and
you perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little,
just a little. Bow to the king of Zion. Lord,
I bow. Thy will be done on earth as
it is in heaven. Embrace the Son of God as Lord
and Savior in that order. It's in that order. This thing
of accept Jesus as your personal Savior is nowhere to be found
in the Bible. Bow your knee to the Lord Jesus Christ and He'll
save you. He'll save you. All right. Thank you for the invite. I do
enjoy coming here. It's precious. I was singing,
we turned down this road, and I started singing Precious Memories. All right. Thank you, John. Wasn't that
so good? John mentioned that first Sunday,
19 years ago, when we met together. I taught the class and led the
singing and sat down and John started preaching. And tears
just came to my eyes. And I thought, oh, I remember
this. I remember the preaching of Christ.
I remember worshiping him. That was and is more precious
today than even then. John, that was so good. You cannot
preach the kingship of Christ strongly enough to to strongly.
There's no salvation for you and me until Lord makes us bow
his feet. We're going to bow to the King
before He ever has mercy on us. He's going to bring us there.
He brought me there today. I tell you that. I hope He did
you, too. Before Chris comes and leads
us in our singing, let's ask the Lord's blessing. Father,
how we thank You for the day that You've given us. How we
thank You that our Savior, the one who loved us and gave Himself
for us, washed us in His own blood. is king over all. Father, thank you for this good
news and all how I beg of you that you'd cause each one of
us here this morning to bow at his feet and kiss his hand, lick
his hand like a dog licking the master's hand. Father, bless
us for Christ's sake. Bless this word for your glory
and for the good of your people. It's in Christ's name. For his
sake, we pray. Amen. All right, Chris, come
lead us in a closing. All right, in closing, if you
would, take your hymnal and turn to page 255, and let's be standing
as we close. 255, Blessed Assurance. ? Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine
? Oh, what a forte of glory divine Pair of salvation, purchase of
God Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood This is my story,
this is my song ? Praising my Savior all the day long ? This
is my story, this is my song ? Praising my Savior all the
day long ? Perfect submission perfect delight. Visions of rapture now burst
on my sight. Angels descending bring from
above echoes of mercy, whispers of love. ? This is my story,
this is my song ? Praising my Savior all the day long ? This
is my story, this is my song ? Praising my Savior all the
day long Perfect submission, all is at rest I and my Savior
am happy and blessed Watching and waiting, looking above Filled
with His goodness, lost in His love This is my story. This is my song. Praising my Savior all the day
long. This is my story. This is my song. Praising my Savior all the day
long. Yeah.