10th chapter, I guess it is.
10th chapter of the book of Romans. 12th verse, For there is no difference
between the Jew and the Greek, as Jew and Gentile. For the same Lord over all is
rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on Him
in whom they have not believed? So verse 13 has got to be interpreted
in light of verse 14. It is not just to say at random
to an individual, Why don't you just get down there and call
upon the name of the Lord? If you call upon the name of
the Lord, the Scripture says you will be saved. But here it
says, How can they call on Him in whom they have not believed.
You can't call upon Him until you
believe in Him. And how shall they believe in
Him of whom they have not heard? You've got to hear of Him. You've
got to find out who He is. He's got to be revealed to you. How shall they believe in Him
whom they have not heard, and how shall they hear? Well, let's
have a preacher. And how shall they preach except
they be sent? As it is written, How beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring
glad tidings of good things. But they have not all obeyed
the gospel. To obey the gospel is to believe
the gospel. Isaiah said, Lord, who hath believed
our report? So then faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God. But I say, have they not heard?
Yes, verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their
words unto the ends of the world. But I say, doth not Israel know?
First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that
are no people," that's Gentiles, and by a foolish nation, that's
Gentiles, I will anger you. But Isaiah is very bold, and
he said, I was found of them that sought me not. I was made
manifest unto them that asked not after me. But to Israel he
saith, day long I have stretched forth
my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people." Hymn number 279. Turn back with
me to Psalm 103. Psalm 103. There in that nineteenth verse, the psalmist says, The Lord hath
prepared his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom ruleth over all. The Lord hath prepared his throne. That means he has established
it. Prepared and established are
about the same thing, at least in the context here. The Lord
hath established his throne in the heavens. He prepared it. He did it Himself. There was
no one else to prepare it for Him. Just Him. He did it Himself. And His throne is a dominion that originally
resided in His own nature. It was not derived from anybody
else because there was nobody else. It didn't come by birth or by authority. He, God alone,
prepared His throne in the heavens. He is the sole cause of His throne. He is the sole cause of His kingdom. His authority, which we have
mentioned time and time again, His authority is unlimited. His authority is as infinite
as His nature. No beginning and no end. Always was. and always will be. None but Himself prepared His
throne for Him. He needs no help, no instructions
on how to act. He hath all things and made ready
all things for the good of His people. hath prepared his throne in the
heavens, and his kingdom ruleth over all." Now, it is an established
throne. It is a fixed throne. It is not a tottering throne. It is a permanent throne. It is an immovable throne, immovable
dominion. And God has prepared it and over
all of it. And the rebellion of man and
the rebellion of devils put together cannot overthrow His throne,
His dominion. His dominion is like Himself. He abides forever. the throne
of God. He hath prepared his throne in
the heavens. Blessed be the Lord, David said.
He done it. Blessed be his holy name. So
I join with him, and I know you join with him and myself in saying,
Blessed be the name of the Lord. His throne is in the heavens.
That's where His throne is, folks. So where is God? He's in the
heavens doing whatsoever it pleases Him to do. This expression, in the heavens,
has something to do symbolically with His authority. His throne is in the heavens.
A throne, as I understand it, is the proper place of royalty.
It is a seat of excellence, a seat of majesty, a seat of glory. His throne, royalty, is the place
where the deepest respect and honor and glory of its subjects
is paid and where their petitions are presented. And you and I
being believers, the Lord Jesus Christ, and fit
subjects of the grace of God, and been given a good hope, and
know Him whom to know is life eternal. That is where our Savior,
our Lord Jesus Christ, He arose from the dead and bid goodbye
to his apostles, went yonder there in the heavens,
and he's seated in the right hand of God, the right
hand of God's throne, and he's there on our behalf to make intercession
for us. It's the Lord Himself that hath
prepared His throne in the heavens, and our Savior's there, and He
makes intercession for us. Our God is in the heavens. That's
where His throne is. And the Bible says the earth
is His footstool. His throne's in heaven and the
earth's His footstool. The heavens. They speak out with
a full mouth His glory. It's called, I think I preached
about this not so long ago, it's called the habitation of holiness,
the habitation of His glory. His throne, His kingdom, this
place, high above every place is His throne. The throne of
God being in heaven. He can easily look down upon
the sons of man. This high place, I read over
here in the 14th Psalm, it said this, verse 1, it said, The fool
hath said in his heart, There is no God. The fool. The man that says there is no
God, he is a fool. The fool has said in his heart,
and they tell me that the better translation of this is, it means,
no God for me. The fool has said in his heart,
there is no God for me. They are corrupt. They have done
abominable works. There is none that doeth good.
Now listen to this. It said, The Lord looked down
from heaven. He hath prepared his throne in the heaven. established it in the heavens.
And he looked down from heaven upon the sons of men, the children
of men, to see if there were any that did understand. To see
if there was any of Adam's fallen race that did understand and
seek God. And he said, They are all gone
aside. They are all together become
filthy, and there is none that doeth good, no, not one. God hath prepared his throne
in the heavens, and his kingdom ruleth over all. The earth is
his footstool, and heaven is the place where his throne is. God is sovereign. He is the Lord and King, and
he exercises dominion over the whole world. Everything that
moves and wiggles everything that's seen and not
seen, all the riches and treasures and the bounties of the earth. He reigns over them. He has dominion
over them. Cattle on a thousand hills belong
to him, and silver and gold are mine, he said. He's called the
Lord of Hosts, and that means They call him the Lord of hosts
because all the troops of the armies of heaven, that is of
a spiritual nature, are in his hands and they just wait to do
his bidding. They wait to do his service. The angels are called the hosts
of the Lord. Here in the Bible I read just
recently about the angels standing, part of them on his right hand
and part on his left hand, waiting to do his service. His throne
is forever. They are called the Lord of Hosts. That means, in our language,
which this word is very prevalent and prominent in the news today,
to give us some idea of what he means when he calls the angels
the Lord of hosts. They are his militia. That is
his militia. We know what the militia is down
here. Oh, they stand there not to counsel
him or anything like that. He doesn't need any advice, any
help, but they stand there just to do his bidding, just to do
his service. He's over all and above all. Let me read to you in 1 Chronicles
chapter 29, the prayer of David. And this psalm is the psalm of
David. In verse 10 of 1 Chronicles chapter
29, verse 10, Wherefore David blessed the Lord, before all the congregation.
And David said, Blessed be thou, Lord God of Israel, our Father,
forever and ever. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness
and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty. That's a wonderful prayer, isn't
it? Oh, that we'd pray like that. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness,
the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty, for all that
is in Thee, heaven and in Thee, earth, is Thine. He hath prepared
a throne, the highest height, the highest height above everything,
towering mountains. Carl said when he went to Alaska,
They said they've seen the towering mountains of Alaska, some of
them 25,000 feet. But that's only a spot. That's
only a fleeting spot compared to the vastness of the heavens
where God's throne is. You think the United States is
vast as it is, but if you put the United States of America
on a map with the rest of the world, you can almost cover it
with your finger. You know that? Just cover it
with your finger. Oh, the vastness of this dominion! God's in the heavens. He rules
and reigns and doeth as He pleases. Sovereign God, the Lord of hosts,
they stand by. He tells them what He wants done.
They carry out His orders, and they think it's a They think
it's a blessed privilege to do service for Him. They're not
a bit reluctant. Power and the glory and the victory
and the majesty for all that's in heaven. All that's in heaven,
all that spiritual host that's there is His. And in the earth,
everything in the earth is His. One said, He's not my God. He's
your God whether you like it or not. Isn't he? He's your God
whether you like it or not. He's God over all things, Lord
over all things. And all that's in heaven and
all in the earth is thine. Thine is the kingdom, O Lord.
It's not the devil's kingdom. Someone said, well, the devil
rules the kingdom. Oh, no, it's the Lord's kingdom.
Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and Thou art exalted as head
above all." Listen to this now, "...both riches and honor come
of Thee, and Thou reignest over all. In Thine hand is power and
might, and in Thy hand is to make great and to give strength
unto all." Now therefore, our God, we thank Thee and praise
Thy glorious name." But David said, But who am I? And what is these people I dwell
with, these Jews, these Israelites? Who am I and what is my people
that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort,
for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given
thee." We've just simply given back to thee what was yours in
the beginning. What am I? Oh, my soul. They bow. these heavenly messengers,
this spiritual army of God, they bow before Him to receive orders
from Him, not to counsel Him. The stars and the moon and the
sun, they are called the hosts of the Lord. Now listen, I think at This verse is Scripture
about Him prepared, the Lord prepared His throne in the heavens,
His dominion over all. And in this prayer of David, if we could have a view, if we
could have a view of God upon His throne, I think that would cause us to
think doing Him a service would be a privilege, don't you? If
we could have a view of this. That's our problem. We haven't
seen Him as He is. And it's hard for us to believe
what the Bible says when it describes who God is. We're reluctant to
receive it. Well, I know If we ever get a
glimpse of Him, we will say, Woe is me, for I am a man undone. And He said, I dwell with an
unclean people. Woe is me. Well, another thing
that will take place is it will make us serious. It will make
a child of God serious if he ever gets a view of God on the
throne, that He is ruling all. There's no limit to his right
to rule, and he does whatever he wants to, and he's the sovereign
Lord God of all, and he needs no instructions, no counsel. We're the inhabitants of this
world, and we're under his control and under his rule. Oh, I guess
the reason why we don't carry our souls properly before God
as we walk and talk with God is because we don't believe that
He is a great God. We don't believe that He's a
great King. We don't believe that He's all that He said He
was. We ought to believe it. The Lord hath prepared His thrones
in the heavens, His dominion over all, forever and forever. Ah, the heavens are the highest
part of creation, Bob. That's the highest part. Higher
than Mount McKinley. Higher than all of them. The
highest place in creation. Well, that's the only fit place
for God, is the highest place in creation. I told you that
the Lord looked down from heaven. Looked down from heaven upon
the sons of men. Looked down. It's up there. place
of royalty. The earth, I said, is but a spot
compared to the heavens, nothing to it. The earth is the Lord's
and the fullness thereof, and the world and all that dwell
in it belongs to Him. The earth, which is riches and
is treasures, everything, everything that moves is His. And He has the sole right over
all things, the sole right. And He's worthy of honor and
glory and excellence and majesty. He's worthy of worship and He's
worthy of praise and He's worthy of service. And if we ever see
Him, and we ought to see Him, we ought to at least have a glimpse
of Him in the face of Jesus Christ. Oh, the goodness and the mercy
of God that He would consider us Poor, He doesn't need us for
anything. We do not add anything to God
at all. We don't add nothing to Him.
What little good we do in this life is produced by God in us. We can't take any credit for
that even. And here God is so concerned
about us. The sovereign Lord sat on the
throne and doesn't need us, but He's concerned about us and loved
us before we were ever born, loved us before we ever sinned,
and promised to save us, send us a Savior before we ever sinned
against Him, sent the Lord Jesus Christ. to die, to live and to die on
our behalf and pay what we owe. Clothe us and deck us out in
His own holiness, His own righteousness. Present Him, present us to Him
before this throne that He has established and prepared in the
heavens. Oh, may the Lord help us. May the Lord help us to humble
ourselves before Him and pray like David. Pray like David. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness
and the power. I read these prayers in the Bible
and I see the vast distance between their prayers and my prayers
and the prayers of others I hear. They don't talk about dear mama
and dear papa and my uncle and my aunt and this one's got a
sick child and she's got cancer and he's crippled and he needs
some help, Lord, all that business. I know there's, I know that he
said ask, ask and you shall receive. Oh, I know that, I know that.
But the prayers of these fellows, they knew those things too, but
the prayers of David and these fellows, they tell God. They
tell back to God who He is. They tell Him of His greatness.
They remind God of His greatness, who He is. And God delights in
that. He delights in being told back
what He said about Himself. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness,
the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty. It's Yours. It's Yours. For all that is in
the heaven and in the earth is Yours. Thine is the kingdom,
O Lord, and Thou art exalted above all. And I say, Amen. The Lord bless His Word to our
understanding. May we profit by it. and we'll
go our way. Meet again on Wednesday, Lord
willing.