Alright, if you'll take your
Bibles and turn with me to Psalm 47. Psalm 47. I've entitled this message, The Comfort
of God's Reign. This was a message that I began
last Sunday and barely got through the first point. So I'm hoping
that the Lord will be gracious to allow us to see this psalm
again. See the other points. The comfort
of God's reign. The Scripture here begins with
a call of rejoicing. It says, clap your hands, all
you people, and shout unto God with a voice of triumph. God here is calling His people
to clap, to rejoice, and to sing triumphantly. And the reason
that God has called such rejoicing, God has called His people to
rejoice, is found in the next verse 4. For the Lord Most High
is terrible. It means that He is to be reverenced. He is to be held in awe. And this is why He is a great
King. And look at His dominion over
all the earth. He is a great king over all the
earth. This morning, you who are believers
in Christ, you should have great reason to clap your hands, to
be joyful, to be joyful. You should, you and I are not
a defeated people. You feel defeated? I feel defeated
so often. I feel like I should shout with
a voice of mourning, not a voice of triumph. I feel defeated. God here is encouraging. You
are not a defeated people. You are to shout with the voice
of triumph. And this is why. Not because
of you. You are defeated. You are easily
defeated. You may have all the intentions
this morning of worshiping God and you can be thwarted just
like that. You can be defeated. But God commands you to clap
and be rejoicing because you are triumphant in this regard. Your God is King over all the
earth. You should be comforted in this. Your God reigneth over all the
earth. There is nothing outside of His
dominion. Everything is included in His
reign. He is Lord over all the earth. Verse 3, this is why you should
rejoice in His kingship. Because He is King over your
salvation. He reigns over your deliverance. Look at this. He shall subdue
the people under us and the nations under our feet. He promises victory. Victory over all the foes of
His people. That's what it means. Remember
when Joshua defeated the enemies, he called the chief captains
of the tribes to put their foot on the neck of their enemies. Christ, because of God's purpose
in salvation, He said this, Christ will come and defeat your foes. And when He does, He will call
you to put your foot on their neck. What are your enemies?
What are your enemies? Satan is your enemy. Satan is your foe. What did Christ
do when He came into this world? He crushed the head of your enemy. By the bruising of His heel,
He crushed His head. He has defeated enemy. Sin is
your enemy. Christ bore your sin in His own
body on the tree. Suffered the justice of God in
your stead. And because of His victory, what
happened to your sin? God says, I will remove their
sin as far as the east is from the west. So far has He removed
our sin from us. He took all of our sin. Don't
you feel defeated because of sin? God says, don't feel defeated
because of sin. I've taken your sin. I've judged
your sin. I've condemned your sin in the
flesh of my Son. And we know this, that Christ
was triumphant over sin because God raised Him from the dead. Death is your enemy. Death is
an enemy. Because of sin, what's the result
of sin is death. Our brother Lindsay died. He
died. But he's not dead. His body died,
but he's not dead. Whoso... Jesus said that, I believe,
in John chapter 11. Whoso believeth in me shall never
die. Believest thou this? There Lazarus
was, he was dead. And he was telling his sister,
he said, Whoso believeth in me shall never die. Lazarus was
not dead. Jesus said he was asleep. He's
sleeping. He's not dead. Why? Because Christ
conquered death. He conquered death on our behalf. And look at this next verse.
Concerning your salvation, He who is King shall choose our
inheritance. Now get this. You were chosen,
weren't you? You believe in Christ. You were
chosen before the foundation of the world. God purposed your
salvation, put you in Christ, and what was your inheritance
then? When He put you in Christ, what was your inheritance? All
spiritual blessings. You see what He chose for you?
He chose your inheritance. You didn't choose your inheritance. He chose your inheritance for
you. All spiritual blessings in heavenly places. The excellency
of Jacob, whom He loved. Now you can see this either way.
Is Christ the excellency of Jacob? Is He not the most excellent
of us? He is. He is our inheritance. Or this
may mean that the excellency of you who are Jacob. He has
made us excellent in Christ. He has made us excellent and
we are loved. We are loved of God. And we know
that this salvation that God purposed, This salvation that
Christ accomplished, that you're to shout about, that you're to
be triumphant over, is this. He has gone up. Look at that
next verse. How do we know this? Look at this. God is gone up
with a shout. He has gone up with a shout of
victory. Where is Christ, your King, this
morning? Where is He? He sits on the throne of God.
That's where He is. He has gone up for you. He ever
liveth to make intercession for you. You feel defeated because
of your sins and yet God says triumph. Shout with the voice
of triumph because He ever liveth to make intercession for you. He has gone up with a shout.
And listen, the Lord with the sound of the trumpet. And the
gospel is often referred to as a trumpet. The gospel sound is
now gone out into all the world. The gospel of Jesus Christ. This gospel of God's sovereign
grace in Christ. We by nature were rebels and
sinners, unable and unwilling to come to God. And yet what?
He drew us. This is why you should shout
with all triumph and all that you should be very confident. Of your standing before God.
Simply because the gospel declares that you who were rebels are
drawn by the power of God. I don't really think we understand
the miracle of faith. If you believe in Christ, that
is the greatest miracle that could possibly happen in this
world. We think maybe somebody rising
from the dead or people think speaking in tongues or whatever,
they think a miracle is. A miracle is simply this, you
believe. If you believe on Christ, that's
the miracle of God's grace. That's evidence of a spiritual
resurrection. And you believe on Christ, you
who are incapable. God exposed your sin. He brought
you to Christ. And you heard this, this is a
faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ
came into the world to save who? Sinners. If you want to know
who God's elect are, they are sinners. They are sinners. This gospel we preach is for
sinners. It is a gospel of representation. It's not a gospel of works and
merit. That's false religion. It's a
message for sinners who are incapable of pleasing God, unable to merit
the favor of God in any measure. It is a gospel of mercy. Wherefore,
as by one man's sin entered in the world, and death by sin,
so death passed upon all men. By one man's offense, many were
made sinners." Listen, here's the Gospel, "...even so by the
righteousness of one." The righteousness of one. There was only one righteous. Jesus Christ. And He obtained
righteousness for us. And this is the message that
draws us. It is a message of love. A message
of grace. A message of Done. Finished. Salvation's accomplished. Shout and clap with triumph because
salvation is done. It's accomplished for you by
Jesus Christ. Out of great love, He accomplished
this. And it's by this message of love
He draws us. The King draws His people to
Himself. Look at the result of this shout,
the gospel shout in verse 6. Sing praises to God, sing praises,
sing praises. Unto the king, sing praises.
Isn't that the result of this? Would to God our heart would
sing praises? I like the way he repeats himself.
God's Word never repeats itself just to take up space. Sing praises! Okay, what do you do next? Sing
praises! Sing praise to our King who accomplished our salvation.
Sing praise. It's always the result is that
we sing praises unto our God. Why? Because He reigneth over
our salvation. He accomplished it all. He did it all. Now then, look at this second
thing. Look at verse 8. The Scripture here said, God
reigneth not over just our salvation. But notice this, He reigneth
over the heathen. God sitteth upon the throne of
His holiness. Now this, I know, may be speaking
of two different things. Two things. First of all, I believe
this has reference to the calling of the Gentiles. God says He
would reign over the heathen. Now, when this psalm was written,
you realize that there was only one nation in all the world that
had the gospel. Now, in our day, we know that this gospel has
gone out into all nations. But in that day, it was only
one group of people who had it. There was only one tabernacle,
there was only one law given, one covenant made, and that was
to Israel, the nation of Israel. They had the presence of God,
they had the prophets at Tabernacle while the rest of the world walked
in darkness, never knowing the person of God or hearing of the
Messiah. Never. They never hear the blessing
of Christ. They were vessels of wrath fitted
for destruction. Now listen, no doubt the other
nations of the world were much more prosperous than the nation
of Israel. They were much richer than the
nation of Israel. They were much more powerful
than the nation of Israel. How do you suppose they received
those prosperities and necessities of life and breath and joy? God
gave it to them. God gave them life, breath, and
all the joy they had, and yet they still refused to worship
Him as God. Paul said that what they knew
of God They refused to worship Him as God, but rather worshiped
the creature rather than the Creator. But God, by His sovereign
will, purposed to bring in the Gentiles into the fold of Christ. Go to Hosea, chapter 2. You know this story very well. Here we read of God's alluring,
of God's salvation of Gomer, which is a picture of us. He
said in verse 14, Therefore I will allure her and bring her into
the wilderness and speak comfortably to her. I will give her vineyards
from thence in the valley of Achar for a door of hope. I've
gone over this many times with you. You know that Achan, that
man who sinned after Jericho fell, he robbed God. That man,
Achan, is a dual picture for us. He is a picture of Adam.
In that he sinned, Israel could not win the victory. Isn't that
what happened with Adam? When he sinned, we all fell in
him and could not appeal, could not merit our favor with God. But you remember that the death
of Achan, The death of Achan brought victory to Israel. What
a picture of Christ. That's what he's saying in this
text, the Valley of Achar. That's where Achan died. Is a
door of what? Hope. It's a picture of Christ. He said, I'm going to give you
Christ, the door of hope. And what's she going to do? She's
going to sing. In the days of her youth, as in the day when
she came out of the land of Egypt, And it shall be in that day,
saith the Lord, thou shalt call me beloved husband, Isha, beloved
husband, and thou shalt call me no more master. He says in verse 19, I will betroth
thee unto me forever. Yea, I will betroth thee unto
me in righteousness and in judgment, and in lovingkindness and in
mercy. Listen, God betrothed you to Christ before the world
began. But there is a day that He came
and that was revealed to you. That's the day He's talking about.
When He comes in lovingkindness, when He comes in mercy to you.
And He reveals this betrothal. when He shows you the valley
of Achars, the door of hope, when He gives you life. But this is not just for the
Jews. Look down in verse 23. He said, I will sow her unto
Me in the earth, and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained
mercy. And I will say to them that are
not My people, what? Thou art My people, and they
shall say, Thou art my God. We know by the New Testament
reference that this is speaking of His calling of the Gentiles. Now why is this important? What
are you? What are you? You're a Gentile. This is exactly
meant for you. And in that day of Pentecost,
that's what Paul Peter was telling them when the Spirit of God was
poured out. He said now the Spirit of God
is poured out on all flesh." Now what does that mean? All
flesh? It means this, not all men without
exception, but all men without distinction. It doesn't matter
what you were born, a Jew or a Gentile. When the Spirit is
poured out on you, it's not because you were a Jew. And if it's poured
out on you, it's definitely not because you're a Gentile. It's
by the grace of God that the Spirit of God is poured out.
Our Lord Jesus tells us in John 10, remember, he's the great
shepherd of the sheep, and he said, Other sheep have I, which
are not of this fold. What did he mean? I want you
to get this. He was thinking of you. When
he said that, he was thinking of us. Other sheep I have, which
are not of this fold. Them I also, what? Must bring. I like that. You get that? The king said this,
I must bring them. I must bring them in. And they
shall be one fold and one shepherd. Now to the Jews, there was nothing
lower than a Gentile. There was nothing, they called
them dogs. Really, they were dogs. That's what Jesus said
when he talked to that Canaanite woman. He said, is it me to give
the children bread to dogs? He was doing that for a purpose.
He was showing the humility of this woman, the faith of this
woman. Yes, truth, Lord, that she took her place. You know
what religious people won't do? They won't take their place.
They won't take their place. See, I identify with that woman.
Truth, Lord. The dogs eat the crumbs from
the Master's table. We take our place. We are a people
grafted in. We are of that heathen line.
And so when God says, I rule over the Gentiles, He said, I'm
ruling over them to save my people who are heathen. By nature, that's
what we were. By line, by our descendants,
we were heathen. God says, I rule over it. Matter of fact, I overrule it.
He overruled it. That's what Paul says. If you
want to read about this, you can. Romans chapter 11. I don't
have time. But we are those grafted in.
God used their unbelief so that you should obtain mercy. By their
unbelief, you obtained mercy. And even so, this should cause
us great humility that we've been grafted in. Why? So that by our mercy, they might
obtain mercy. By our preaching of this gospel,
they might obtain mercy. The second reference is this,
for your comfort. Now listen to this, God refers
to the reign over the heathen in this regard. Not just those
He'll bring in, you and me. But He rules over all those He
will not bring in. He will not bring in. Those who
are lost and left to themselves. Believer, is it not true we live
in a very uncertain world? Can you not identify with the
uncertainty? I know all things are certain
with God, but I don't know what will come of anything. I can't
tell you what will happen. Two seconds from now, I just
can't tell you. It's uncertain, it's constantly
changing, rapidly changing. One moment we are doing well,
the next we are overwhelmed with trouble. I know that you see this in just
the recent events of our brother Lindsey, you see this. I know
this, there was not a healthier man than Lindsey. Lindsey was
a healthy man. We were all sure that this thing
would pass. That all would be well. And what
did we find? That we didn't know anything. Our certainty was... We were
trusting, I guess, in his strength. I was. He was a healthy, older
man. And I know some very unhealthy
people who have overcome this illness. I don't know what God
will do with this. It's uncertain. One minute we're
sailing along and everything's well, and the next minute a storm
arises. Kind of like that mariner in
Psalm 107. He that went out to do business in great waters.
Isn't this what we're doing? We're doing business in great
waters this morning. Talking about eternal things.
eternal life, eternal death. We're talking about God's Son. These are deep subjects, deep
waters. And I know this, God says, the
scripture says, and God lifted him up, the sea up to the heavens
and dropped him down to the depths. You feel like that? God lifts
you up. You feel as though you could
reach heaven. What happens the next minute? God drops you back
down to the depths. Up, down. Up, down. That's our experience in this
life. It's changing constantly. God lifts up nations and casts
them down. We think this... Who doesn't
think this nation... We always assume that this nation
would just last forever. It's the one we live in. and
it's evaporating before our very eyes. It seems that the world is ruled
by wicked men. It seems the wicked prosper,
the righteous suffer. It seems that the wicked are
bold, while God's saints are unsure and timid. I was reading
this. A virgin did this small article
on Ecclesiastes 10, verse 7. Solomon saw this. So whatever
you're seeing, Solomon saw it. God's Word declares it. Solomon
said, I saw slaves riding on horseback, and I saw princes
walking like slaves. Friends, this world is upside
down and backwards. It's upside down and backwards. The servile sons of Satan ride
on high horses. Rule. They seem to rule everything
in that right. You can't you can't get escape.
You go there. They're trying to rule over everything
they possibly can. They're trying to grab as much
power as they possibly can. You know what God's doing? God's
giving it to him. He's giving them power. While the sons of God, the true
princes of the earth, they walk like slaves. Believer, don't judge things
by how they appear. You should never judge things
by how they appear to be. Don't judge or measure God's
love by circumstance. I preached this just recently
in Danville, but go over to Ecclesiastes. Go to Ecclesiastes. This is a
lesson that we as believers must learn. Ecclesiastes chapter 8. Ecclesiastes chapter 8. Look at verse 16. He said, When
I am plying by the heart to wisdom, to see the business that was
done in the earth, what happened? He said, There is neither day
nor night, to see asleep with his eyes. He said, All I did
was lose sleep. When I applied to know how things are going
in this world, judging things by appearance, what did I do? I just lost sleep. He said, then
I beheld the work of God that a man cannot find out the work
that is done under the sun. Because though a man labor to
seek it out, yet he shall not find it. Yea, further, though
a wise man think he know it, he shall not be able to find
it." You're not going to understand God's love or God's hatred by
providence. That's what he says in verse
1 of the next chapter. He said, for all this, all this
searching, I considered in my heart to declare this, that the
righteous, the wise, God's people, and their works are accepted
of God." That's what it means, the open hand of God. Their works
are accepted. And no man knoweth the love or
hatred of God by all that is before them. You're not going
to know God's love or hatred by who rules this world. When John Bunyan was languishing
in prison, could you tell God loved him? You couldn't. Bunyan knew it. Bunyan Bunyan knew it by the
word of God. He knew it by faith that God
loved him. He knew that he was victorious
in that prison cell. And so it is with you because
your God reigning over the heathen. It doesn't matter how it appears. It doesn't matter what happens.
That doesn't change the love of God for His people. God rules over the heathen. We know this by the Word of God.
Our God reigneth. Don't be easily shaken by the
wicked rulers of our day. God reigns over them, and they
can only do His will. They can only do His will. You
got that? They can only do His will. Now,
they're doing what they want to do. This is best illustrated
at the cross, is it not? You not see that? Wicked men
did exactly what they wanted to do. They wanted to kill Christ. And yet they were doing exactly
what God determined before to be done. They were responsible,
and yet God reigned over all that they did. You could not have written it
out. Okay, they're going to throw
dice for his vesture and his lots, and the coat's not going
to be torn. Now that was written hundreds
of years before it happened, and they did exactly what He
said would do. My hands and feet have they what? Pierced. There
was no crucifixion back then. And yet God said that's exactly
how he'll die. But why then are the wicked so
fooled? Because evil work is not judged speedily. That's why.
Because God doesn't execute judgments speedily. They believe that they're
loved. The wicked prosper and they're
loved of the world. But we know this. God will judge.
God will avenge His people. That's our hope, isn't it? That's
our comfort when we are oppressed. That's our comfort when our freedoms
are taken from us, and they will. What's your comfort? Who took
your freedom, really? And what's your comfort in this?
God will avenge me. God will avenge His people. Therefore,
Peter said this. Listen. Beloved, think it not
strange. Think it not strange concerning
the fiery trials that try you, as though some strange thing
happened to you." Now, is that not... We don't act like that. When trials come on us, what
do we think? Well, this is strange. Peter said, don't think it's
strange. Look at those saints that's gone before you. Can you
not see what happened to them and you expect it to be different
with you? What happened to your Lord? You see, He was king of all the
earth and He wasn't riding on a horse. He walked as a servant
in this world. How do you suppose it would be
with us? Think it not strange. It feels strange. I know it does.
When trials come, they feel strange. One hymn writer said, Lord, if
indeed I am Thine, if Thou art my Son and my song, why do I
languish in pain, and why are my winters so long? Any relationship with Him? I have a kinship with that. I
know that. If I am Yours, then why am I
thus? Rebecca said, she said, Why am
I thus? If I'm a child of God, why do
I suffer? Don't think it's strange these
trials come upon you, the actions of the ungodly. Listen, they're
ruled and overruled by God. Your oppression. Is ruled by
God. Your oppressors are ruled by
God. These afflictions you suffer are according to the will of
God. But consider that they are not
for your hurt, they are only for your good. They are only
intended of God for this purpose, to try your faith. To try your faith. Have you questioned your faith? Do you question whether you believe
at all? Man, I can't tell you how many
times I question. Tis a point I long to know, oft
it causes anxious thought. Do I love the Lord? No. Am I? Yes. Or am I? No. You know how
that's tried? By fire. God puts you in the
furnace. He puts you in the flames. And
when everything else is burned away, what do you have left?
Him. Nothing but Him. He's all. When God consumes your family,
your friends, He consumes your job, your money, your property.
Why does He do that? Because in the end, you who are
real believers, the only thing left is Him. then you know your faith is real. Your faith is of God. Why? Because all true faith endures
unto the end. All true faith endures. If it's
God-given faith, it will endure. So these trials, these afflictions are for your good so to try your
faith. And so then, what are we to do
with these wicked men? Nothing. Nothing. Leave them alone. This is why
believers are not to protest. They're not to riot. I know this goes against everything
that the religious world is for. They're for getting out your
guns and getting out your protest sticks and protesting the government.
Let them do what they want to. That's not our business. Our
business is not to change governments. Our business is to preach the
gospel of Jesus Christ. And if we would be about our
business, surely the nation might change. But it's not going to
change with picket signs, and it's not going to change with
news coverage, and it's not going to change with all the... It
may not be changing the heart. And the only thing that pierces
the heart is the gospel. So if the church was about its
business instead of picketing and rioting, then what? Perhaps
God be gracious and save people in this nation. We should be
about our Father's business. Ours is to be subject to God.
to walk by faith, and our only desire is this, to be found in
Christ. That should be your desire above
everything else. That's what Paul said. He said,
I count all things but dung that I may win Christ and be found
in Him. When you come to die, What is the greatest thing of
importance to you? What will it be? To you who are
believers is this, am I in Christ? The world may think about their
legacy, how they're going to be remembered, what their family
is going to think, what their family is going to feel. Mine
is this, am I in Christ? I only want to be in Christ, because that's the only refuge
for his people. That's the only refuge for his
people, is to be found in him. I'm not going to undertake the
next I've got two more points that
I can't get to. But I believe this is sufficient
for us today. If God would give us grace to
be comforted in these two things, think of this, that God is king. He's king over your salvation.
He purposed it. He accomplished it. He applied
it. He will keep it. He will keep
it. He is God over the heathen. He
reigns over the heathen. This is joyful to us because
we were what? Heathens. And by grace, God said,
you who are not my people shall be my people. You shall call
me God. Isn't that what you do this morning?
That's by divine will. Lastly, we should be clapping
our hands in triumph because God does reign over the evil,
over all the wicked of this world, over all the circumstances of
time. God reigns supreme. And it is our business then only
to be found in Christ, to rejoice in Him. May God give us grace
to clap our hands in victory. and not hang our heads in defeat. You are not a defeated people. You are a triumphant people.
Why? Because your king triumphed. Your king triumphed. Therefore,
what do we do? We sing. We praise God. We give thanks to Him who rules
over all time and providence for our salvation. And I start you go as you leave
and you go through these trials. I pray that God will bring this
to your mind. Constantly rehearsing this. My God is King. My God is King. And he rules
over all things. Our gracious Father, I pray that
you'd comfort your people, that you would bless us that, Father,
You'd pour out Your Spirit to us and let us see Your sovereign
hand over all things. I pray, Father, that You'd give
us rest and peace in our hearts. Oh, the world around us is constantly
churning, constantly changing. Our hope is in this. You are a changeless God. And because of that, we are not
consumed. I pray, Father, that you would
rule and overrule in everything for the good of your people,
that they might be comforted and strengthened, and, Father,
they might be encouraged by the Word that's preached. Forgive
us our sins. Go with us as we leave this place.
In Christ's name I pray. Amen.