Let's take our Bibles once again
and turn with me to the book of Proverbs chapter 20. Proverbs
chapter 20 verse 28. Mercy and truth preserve the king. And His throne is upholden by
mercy. I've got four truths that I'd
like to consider this morning. Here's number one. There is a
King above all. And number two, He deserves to
sit upon the throne of His glory. And number three, His kingdom
is eternal. And number four, His glory is
the comfort of His people. There is a King above all. There is a King of Kings. There is a capital K, King of
all these other little lower case k, kings in this earth. This king, knowing that there
is a king above all, is the security and the peace and the joy of
God's people. Let me tell you the joy that
we have this morning. that there is one that is in
control. He's the King. He's God. God Almighty. And He reigns,
rules, orders, brings about. And His counsel, that He's eternally
purpose, stands. No deviation. He directs everything,
as we considered a moment ago, in this world, this universe,
by His will, by His purpose, by His power. And He, as the
King, protects all that He's everlastingly loved. He protects them even before
His elect are called out of darkness. They are ministering spirits,
angels. This is what scripture says.
That minister, watch over those who shall be heirs of salvation. Heirs of God's providence and
inheritance. Watched over and kept. That's
why that passage of Scripture that I quote so often, all that
the Father giveth me, they shall. They shall come to
me. What if they get killed before
they come? They won't. Why? Because He's ordering all
things. He rules. He's the King. They're not going to leave this
world without coming to know Him. They're not going to do
it. They're going to come. And those
that come, He said, I'm not going to cast you out. I've always
loved you. You appealed to me for mercy
that I'd already given you. And I'm going to honor the faith
that I gave you. That's what he told the Syrophoenician
woman. If I can but touch the hem of his garment. Uh uh. Woman
with the issue of blood. Well, the Syrophoenician woman
too, but the one I was thinking about was the woman with the
issue of blood. If I could get to him, I'll be made whole. The Lord had already given her
faith. She just, she hadn't got there yet. She was coming. She
was coming. And she touched him. Thy faith. Thy faith. hath made thee whole. Where did she get it? He gave
it to her. He's the King. All that He loves, He grants
life in Christ. He pardons because He's made
His Son, the King, to be sin for us. Nobody stays His hand,
that's what the Spirit of God moved upon Nebuchadnezzar to
say. He rules in the army of heaven among the inhabitants
of the earth. No one can say to Him with any
authority, what doest thou? He's God. And concerning those
that resist Him, which is every one of us before the Lord called
us out of darkness. This is all of us. We don't have
to talk about those people. This is us, by nature, who still
possess this old nature, that old man, but have a new nature. But before the Lord called us
out of darkness, listen to this question. Why do the heathen
rage and the people imagine a vain and empty thing? The kings, the
little k's, of the earth, set themselves and the rulers, take
counsel together against the LORD, the capital L, capital
O, capital R, capital D, Jehovah, and against His anointed, Christ
Jesus and His people, saying, let us break their bands asunder
and cast away their cords from us. This is man by nature. He wants to dethrone God. He
wants to kill God. That's what he wants. If I don't
have to deal with a God like that, but He who reigns, who
shall not be resisted without consequences. Listen to this. He that sitteth. What does that
mean? He's done. He's finished the
work. He that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh. We're going to break His His
bands asunder. No you won't. No you won't. The Lord shall laugh. He makes
us to understand in terms that we can conceive and perceive. He shall laugh. And the Lord
shall have them in derision. Oh, I know there's a natural
hatred of man against the God of heaven and he rages and he
roars against the Lord of glory thinking that he can make God
out to be a liar. That he can prove by resting,
twisting these scriptures that that's not what it's saying.
But I'm telling you, Almighty God reigns and will not have
His authority usurped. He's the King. Secondly, the
king deserves to sit upon his throne of glory. He deserves
it. He's earned it. I've said this
before and I mean it. Every time I say it, I think,
Lord, teach me this. He was made flesh. He took upon
Himself the form of sinful flesh, yet without sin, and obeyed God,
obeyed His Father, made Himself, humbled Himself, made Himself
flesh, and made Himself answerable to the law, to His own law, made
Himself answerable to it, made under the law, made of a woman, for one reason that He might
redeem us, His people. made himself answerable to the
law. The law scrutinized him. And the father gave this conclusion
concerning his humility and his submission to the law. Well pleased. Well pleased. I'm telling you
that he deserves to sit on the throne of glory. There's a man
that represents His people. There's a man, the God-man, mediator,
sitting on the throne of God, because He's God. He has earned the right to sit,
and deserves to sit, ruling If we think that salvation is by
our works, now you listen. If you think, if we think, if
anyone thinks that salvation has been attained by our works
or by our will or by our doings or our obedience, let me tell
you what we're saying. That we deserve to sit on that
throne. If the last word is left up to us, then we deserve. We don't. Here's what this king
deserves. He deserves to sit. He, not we, finished the work
of the Father. He finished redemption. The lie of Satan tells men, you
finish it. God's done all He can do, and
now there's only one thing left. All you have to do is accept
it in order to be saved. Well, you might as well have
done it all, because you finished the work. You see what I'm saying? He said, it is finished. And the lie of Satan says, you
finish it. You do it. Only of him, the king, did the
father say, sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies
thy footstool. Because he alone deserves to
sit upon that throne, let me tell you what's left for salvation. Nothing. It's done. And when He pleases God, He'll
call His people out of darkness. He deserves to sit. Listen to
what Isaiah said. Isaiah 6, verse 1. In the year
that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne,
high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple, and above
it stood the seraphims. They weren't sitting. And each
one of them had six wings, and with twain he covered his face.
They don't deserve to look. With twain he covered his feet,
even their goings. The Lord charges them with folly.
The stars are not pure in his sight. How much less man that
drinks iniquity like water. He deserves to sit. Thirdly, His kingdom is forever. Psalm 45, verse 6, Thy throne,
O God, is forever. It's like eternity in hell. The worm dieth not, fire is not
quenched. forever. Well, there's a forever,
too, for God's people. He who sits upon His throne has
a kingdom, and His kingdom is His people. That's His kingdom.
He's the King. He's got a throne that He deserves
to sit upon, and He's got a kingdom. His kingdom is His church, His
bride, His sheep, His elect. All those for whom He sits as
mediator and advocate, the great high priest has a kingdom. And
let me tell you how long His kingdom is. Forever. Forever. No more tears. No more sorrows. No more sin. No more doubts. His kingdom is forever. That
means from now on, Yeah, but it means from now back too. His kingdom never started. He's
always had them. Chosen in Him from before the
foundation of the world. How long has His sheep been sheep?
They've always been sheep. He's always had them. How long
has He loved them? He said, I've loved you with
an everlasting love. Well, they had to have been there
then. for Him to have loved them. His kingdom is forever. That kingdom that was a gift
from His Father in electing grace, that kingdom that He paid for
and bought that had fallen in sin, He bought them, He bought
them. You walk into a store and you
look at a dozen eggs And it says a dollar and a quarter. And you
give them a dollar and a quarter and they give you a receipt.
You know what that receipt proves? That's yours. The man stops you
on the way and says, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, where'd you get those
eggs? I bought them. Right there. I bought them. That's
the receipt. Right there. You know what the
receipt is? His blood. His blood. When I see the blood, when I
see the receipt, I'm gonna pass it over to you. That blood that
ever liveth, because He ever liveth. That blood that ever
speaketh, He bought it, paid for it. His kingdom is forever. Take heed therefore unto yourselves
and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you
overseas to feed the church of God which He hath purchased with
His own blood. Redeemed us from the curse of
the law being made a curse for us. Oh, the precious word, redemption. Redemption. To buy back. Pay the debt. Therefore, being
eternally loved, eternally chosen, eternally redeemed, and according
to God's will and purpose in time, regenerated by the grace
of God. Luke 1.33 says, He shall reign
over the house of Jacob. I love that. He'll reign over
the house of Jacob forever. Those Jacobs that He loves. Jacob,
I love. Esau, I hate it. But oh, the
blessedness of being a Jacob, made to be an Israel, a prince
with God, and of His kingdom. There shall be no end. I'm telling
you that we're standing here, sitting here this morning, and
we're saying, well, we're getting older, we're frail creatures,
we're creatures of the dust. That's right. Oh, but there's
going to be a great change very, very soon. This flesh, these eyes, this
flesh. I'm going to see God. There's
going to be a change, but you're going to be still with Him. His
kingdom is forever. And fourthly, lastly, His glory. His glory. Moses said, show me
Your glory. Show me Your glory. I'll cause
all My goodness to pass before you. Here's My glory. It's to
show My goodness, the Lord Jesus Himself. Here's the glory. Here's the goodness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I'm going to show you Him. His glory is the foundation of
His throne and the comfort of His people. Now here is the explanation. of what he said in Proverbs 20,
28. Mercy and truth. Preserve the King. You know, when I first read that,
and this is just my silliness, I'll just express my silliness
to you. My first thought, and here's how you can't even control
your thoughts. But the first thing I thought,
mercy and truth preserve the king. I knew that he was talking
about the king of kings. Preserve him. I thought, what
does he need to be preserved? That's not concerning preserving
him. It's causing us, the thoughts
of him in our minds, to be preserved. Mercy and truth preserve the
king in the minds of his people. His mercy and truth preserve
the king and his throne is upholded by mercy. Now I'm going to make
a few comments on this. Pray the Lord bless you. According
to God's word, mercy, that is hope for the hopeless. Mercy. Clemency for the guilty. You know, when you talk about
mercy, what you're really saying is there's some guilt there.
There's guilt there in themselves. Mercy. Kindness for the offender. Mercy. And truth. Truth. Faithfulness in keeping His Word. preserve the King that is in
the hearts and the understanding of His people. He has revealed
unto us something of Himself. And that knowledge that we have,
that knowledge to know Him, this is life eternal, that they might
know Thee. What do we know? is that Almighty
God, by mercy, has saved us. By grace, mercy, compassion. And that He's truthful, faithful,
faithful. Faithfulness to keep His Word.
Faithfulness. That's the foundation of the
reverence, the respect, fear that we have toward Him. Who
is your God? He is the merciful God. He is
the God of truth, faithfulness to me. And these glorious attributes
of Him who is the King, that truth that preserves our hope
in Him, Here's the truth that preserved. Here's the truth that
He's taught His people. I will have mercy. I will have
compassion. I will. Lord, if You've had compassion
and mercy on me, I've got some hope. And that truth preserves
me. That keeps me. God's had mercy
on me. Look into me, what preserved
me? Mercy, truth. He's merciful,
he's truthful, forgiving, and just. I'm a just God and a Savior. Salvation that's not vitally
linked with justice is no salvation. If God Almighty He says, well,
I'm just going to, as I've said before, I'm just going to sweep
it under the rug. How can a just God do that? He
won't do it, I tell you. Salvation and justice. The soul that sinneth is going
to die. Now, well, I can tell you this, I'm a sinner. The soul
that sinneth is going to die. I'm a sinner. How can God be
just? and justify, that is declare
no guilt to a sinner. How should God be just and justify
a sinner? Only in Christ. What upholds the people of God? Mercy for this sinner and truth. I will. I will judge sin. I will. I'm faithful to that. Faithful to Him. It's the hope for the hopeless
in themselves. Mercy and truth. Listen to this passage of Scripture.
And I'm going to close with this. Psalm 57. He shall send from heaven. He sent somebody. He shall send
from heaven and save me from the reproach of Him that would
swallow me up. Who did He send? Well, He sent
the Lord Jesus Christ, His Son. Listen to the last part of this
verse. God shall send forth His mercy and His truth. He sent His Son. Who is His Son? His Son is mercy and truth. Our
passage says, mercy and truth preserve the King. He keeps His
people. He upholds them. And His throne is upholded by
His mercy. Only Almighty God would reveal
that which upholds His throne in the hearts of His people.
Mercy. Not at the expense of justice.
He's a just God. But all that we can truthfully
say, my salvation He's not based on some fickle little sweep under
the tree. He just kind of decided to look
the other way. No sir. Absolute justice. Absolute justice being served. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Because He's just. He's just. He made sin for us. He who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God. How
can God Almighty justify a sinner and be just only in His mercy
and truth? Bless these words to our heart
for Christ's sake. Amen.