I was in turn with me to Psalm
chapter 97. Psalm chapter 97. And the title of this message is
The Reign of God. The Reign of God. Notice the first verse in Psalm
97. The Lord The Lord reigneth. Let the earth rejoice and let
the multitude of the isles be glad thereof. The Lord reigneth. This is the same thing that is
said over in Psalm 93, verse 1. The Lord reigneth. He is clothed
with majesty. The Lord is clothed with strength
wherewith he hath girded himself. The world also is established
that it cannot be moved. Over in Psalm 99 and verse 1
it says, The Lord reigneth, let the people tremble. He sitteth
between the cherubims, let the earth be moved. The Lord reigneth. What does this word reign mean? We don't often use it in our
vocabulary reign or reigneth. But the word reign means to possess
or exercise sovereign power or authority. The Lord possesses
and exercises sovereign authority, sovereign power to rule, to hold
supreme power, supreme power. The problem My friends, with
modern day religion is the same as it was in the days of Luther
or the days before Luther had said this to Erasmus. He said, the problem with your
God is He's too much like you. He's too much like you. Modern
religion's problem is that their God is too much like themselves. The God preached in the average
pulpit today is much like those of the Apostate Israel of old,
when God rebuked them and said, Thou thoughtest, Thou thoughtest,
I was altogether such an one as thyself. Thou thoughtest that
I was altogether as thyself. Most religious men today profess,
who profess to be Christians, who profess faith in Jesus Christ,
perceive God to be one that is moved by sentiment. Sentiment. Sentimentality. We are very sentimental
people, aren't we? It doesn't take much. Somebody
means something to us, and they give us a little trinket. And
man, that thing isn't worth anything. It's not of any value. But I'll
tell you what, a lot of people, if their house was on fire, they
would run in and grab that one little item that someone had
gave them because it had great sentimental value. And men perceive God to be such
a God as one who is sentimental, who is moved by sentimentality. They perceive God to be moved
by feelings or opinions. No! God is moved only by principle. By the principle of His own sovereign
nature. God is only moved by principle. Most religious men perceive God's
power to be limited so as that His will or purposes may be thwarted
by Satan or men. They view that His plans are
much like their own. Our plans are not our plans mutable. Our plans are changeable. They're
constantly changeable. One minute we perceive that we
desire to do something, we set all of our affairs in order,
and we go at it, we go for it, with all of our heart, with all
of our strength. And I tell you this, who has
ever had their plan perfectly executed? You had a thought,
you had a plan, it may have come, it may have not come, but it
didn't come exactly the way you thought it would. Why? Because we are subject to circumstance. We're subject to higher powers
than ourselves. Lost men say that God reigns,
but they limit His reigning ability so as not to intrude upon their
own wills. These same liars lower the atonement
of Christ upon the cross to be nothing more than a remedy for
sin rather than actual redemption for sin. These false teachers
reduce the immutable work of the Holy Sovereign Spirit to
nothing more than an offer of salvation that sinners either
may accept or reject. This God, my friends, is too
small. This God is too much like man,
and therefore He is no God at all. He is nothing like the God
as is described in our text. The Lord reigneth. The Lord reigneth. Author Pink
wrote this, the God of the 20th century no more resembles the
supreme sovereign of holy writ than does a flickering candle
the glory of the midday sun. The God of all free will works
religion is nothing more than a figment of man's imagination. The Christ of modern religion
is no Christ at all but rather anti-Christ. Friends, either God is absolutely
sovereign and supreme and reigns over all in time and eternity
and rules all things after the counsel of His own will, or there
is no God. Either God reigns supremely over
all things, events in time, human nature, everything, human events,
everything. Either God reigns or there is
no God. There's no middle ground here.
There's no middle ground. Any God who proclaims to reign
and rule over all but whose plans are thwarted, whose purposes
and decrees are restricted and frustrated, has no right to the
title of deity. If your God is frustrated, your
God's not God. And praise God that's not my
God. Praise God that that's not your God. Because our God sits
in the heavens and hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. This is a God who is truly to
be worshipped. A God who reigns and rules over
all things. A God whose will can be cancelled
and made useless is nothing greater than an idol of wood or stone. Matter of fact, every God that
does not reign supreme must fall before the living God. Every
God. Every God who is not sovereign
must and will fall before the living God. You remember what
happened when they put the Ark of the Covenant into that temple
of Dagon in the Philistine village. They had defeated Israel and
they brought the Ark of the Covenant and they put it inside the temple
of Dagon. And what did they find? Dagon
fell. And what they had to do? They
had to prop him up. What does modern religion have
to do with their God when they can't make heads or tails of
what He's doing? When something bad goes wrong,
what do they do? They make excuses for God. These 14 people that were killed
in that terrorist attack this last week, listen to me very
carefully, God ordained it. God ruled over it. and it was
after the counsel of his own will it was executed did you
get that? everything everything works after
the counsel of God's own sovereign free will and he is answerable
to none the Lord reigneth reigneth If you're sick, the Lord reigneth. If you die, the Lord reigneth. If you're saved, the Lord reigneth. And if you're damned, the Lord
reigneth. Do you see that nothing interferes with His reign? Nothing. Nothing. Everything moves because
of His reign, because of His rule. And as Dagon fell down,
and his head was cut off, and his hands were cut off, what
is that saying? That there is no living God but
the Lord. And there is no God who is able
to do anything but Jehovah. No God. No God besides Him. I love that when he said, for
I am the Lord, and beside me Well, where's the sight of God?
Where is it that God could look beside Him? He's omnipotent.
He's omnipresent. He's everywhere. And yet God
is condescending to our language so we can understand. It's as
though God looked to His left and looked to His right and He
said, I see no other God but Me. I'm it. Beside Me there is
no God. I am God and there is none else.
I kill. Deuteronomy 32, 36. I kill and
I make a life. I wound and I heal. Neither can any deliver out of
my hand. Is that not the God you worship?
Oh, my friends, that's the God I worship. And any other God
that is less than that is no God. Behold now the true and living
God as he reveals himself in his holy word the Lord reigneth
That is God has from all eternity past reigned When he was alone
and happy in the Trinity of his persons before there was ever
a created heaven to place his throne before there was ever
an earth to put his foot on and before there was ever an angel
to sing his hymn, before there was ever a sinner to be saved.
God reigned. God reigned. He reigned perfectly, happily,
because He is perfect. He is perfect. Why are you not
happy? you're not perfect. We're always trying to make something
perfect. Why? So we can be happy. But
we're never happy because we're never perfect. God was always
happy. God was always enjoyed himself. I'll tell you what, I'm the I
despise my own company. I don't like being alone. I tell
you, I like being with people. But I'm forced to, a lot of times,
just be by myself. And that's the worst company
in the world. But when God was by Himself, He was content. He was happy. And so then there
was nothing in His creation that God needs. Did you get that?
Because the Lord reigns, He needs nothing from His creatures. People running around, well,
God needs you. Makes them feel important, doesn't it, when they
say, well, man, God needs you. You know, you've got such gifts,
and you've got such talents, and I'll tell you what, God truly
just needs you. No, He doesn't. And if your God needs something,
He's not perfect. There is nothing that His creatures
can add to Him, nor is there anything that His creatures can
take from Him. There's nothing we have that
can tempt Him or cause Him to move or alter his sovereign will
and purpose. You get that? There's nothing
you can do to alter God's purpose. Nothing. You realize that prayer,
the prayer of the saints is commanded. We who are believers in Jesus
Christ, we have the Spirit of God in us, and the Spirit of
God moves us to cry, Abba, Father. We cry out to our God. We cry
out to Him in prayer and supplication. We make our requests known unto
God. But I would be a fool to say
that my prayers move God to do anything. Prayer is a mystery. Prayer is
a mystery. Because I tell you, my God hears
my prayers and answers my prayers. But my prayers did nothing to
alter His sovereign decrees, His sovereign purpose. Matter
of fact, He purposed that I should pray. He purposed what I should
pray. And He purposed to answer that
prayer in the way that He determined to answer it. It was already
purposed. Why pray then? Because God commands
it. I don't have to reconcile that.
Let your request be made known unto God. Come as you are. I'll
tell you this, I put it in the bulletin, you read it later,
but Horatius Bonar, he made it very clear, he said, just come
as you are. Stop waiting to be something
that you'll never be. Come now as a sinner and make
your requests known unto God. Consider this, consider this
truth. that even the righteousness and
death of the Savior himself added nothing to God. Go to Psalm 16. Psalm 16. Look at it for yourself. This is a prophecy of the Savior. Verse 1, Preserve me, O God,
for in thee do I put my trust. Who else put their trust in God
as the Savior? No one. He obeyed God's law and
by his faith obtained the righteousness of God. O my soul, thou hast
said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord, my goodness, look at
this, extendeth not to thee. but to the saints that are in
the earth." Do you get that? His goodness, His righteousness,
the righteousness of the Savior. You see, that extended to me
and you, didn't it? We needed the righteousness of
God, and Christ provided the righteousness of God for us.
But that righteousness did not affect God. It did not add anything to God. My righteousness extendeth not
to thee, but to the saints. That's who it extends to. O my
soul, thou hast said to the Lord, thou
art my Lord, my goodness extendeth not to thee, but to the saints. Behold, that Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, equal with the Father and the Spirit in power and glory
and holiness, says that his righteousness that he obtained and merited as the mediator extended not
to God, did not add anything to God. If the Son of God could
add nothing to God, then what does man think he can do by his
own works? By our own foolishness, and yet
man somehow thinks he can move God by his obedience. If the Son of God could do nothing
to add to the will and purpose of God, then what does man think
he can do to move the eternal God who said, I am God, I change
not. I change not. Therefore, you
sons of Jacob are not consumed. If all the creatures of the earth,
listen, if all the creatures of the earth, heaven and hell,
were to assault the throne of God. Consider this, that man
hates God by nature. If God were to leave man alone
and the angels alone to themselves, and they were all at once to
assault the throne of God, it would be as the mist of the spray
against the rock of Gibraltar. It would not move Him. It would
not move Him. The Lord our God is not fretful
about anything. Did you get that? Our God is
not wringing his hands wondering what in the world men are going
to do. Only a man who does not know
God would say such a thing as though God were worried. The scripture says that the men
of the earth set themselves against the Lord and took counsel, and
they said, We will not have this man rule over. Let us break his
bands asunder and cast his cords from us, and the God of heaven
shall worry and fret. Is that what it says? No. The God of heaven shall laugh. Those who reject the Lord Jesus
Christ, I tell you, who hate Him and hate the Sovereign God,
He will laugh in their day of calamity. He will mock them in
their torture. Thine, O Lord, the Scripture
says, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory
and the majesty. For all in the heaven and all
in the earth are Thine. Thine is the kingdom, O Lord.
Thou art exalted as the head above all. Both riches and honor
come of Thee. Thou reignest over all. Behold, O man, God is not waiting to reign. He reigns now. Isn't this the
God of most this generation? Oh, He's going to one day reign.
One day He's going to come back and He's going to set up a kingdom
here on earth. And then He's going to reign.
Oh, no. God is not waiting to reign.
He does reign. He does reign. I was listening
to someone talk about the Muslim. I don't take too much time to
deal with that garbage. But he said that in their book,
the Quran, he said, when their God created the heavens and the
earth, it's then that He enthroned Himself. In other words, there was a time
where he wasn't king. My God's always been king. My
God's always reigned. And He reigns now. And He will
reign for all eternity. Our God reigneth over all. God reigns supremely. God reigns
absolutely. And He does all things after
the counsel of His own will. For who could stay his hand,
or say unto him, What doest thou? Is that not the most utter arrogance
of our human nature to question God's right to rule? Known unto God are all his works
from the beginning of the world. He says, my counsel shall stand
and I will do all my pleasure. Today I declare unto you the
one sovereign monarch. How then may man, who is so small,
counted as the grasshoppers of the field, counted as the dust
the nations, or counted as the dust in the balance, as nothing
to the sovereign monarch of the universe, how is it then that
you or I, being sinners against a holy God, sinners against this
great God, how is it then that we could commune with God? How is it? because God ordained that some
should be saved. Election is a hated gospel by
a nation, by a people who reject God's right to rule. But election to us is a great comfort. because had God not chosen to
save some none would have been saved and consider how the sovereign
monarch chose to save by Jesus Christ his son there is only
one way to the father there is only one way that a sinner may
approach unto God and it is by the way that the Almighty hath
decreed even the Son Jesus Christ the one who decreed the salvation
of the elect also provided the salvation for the elect he didn't
decree it and leave it up to us praise his name that he did
not leave anything to chance It is all accomplished by the
blessed and holy Redeemer, Jesus Christ. His righteousness, accomplished. Atonement by His blood, accomplished. Justification by His resurrection,
accomplished. And now that He sends His Holy
Spirit into the world, to do what? What is God doing? I tell
you, I don't know a lot. But I know what the scripture
tells me, that he shall save his people from their sins. Thou
shalt call his name Jehovah saves. For he shall save his people
from their sins. Now the God that I've just described
to you has come in the flesh and has accomplished salvation
and is now ascended into glory. I tell you now there's a man
in heaven reigning. And he is going to save his people. How do I know? The Lord reigneth. Have you believed on the Son
of God? Do not consider that faith a
light act of the will, but rather a divine decree of the Almighty
God. Faith is a gift of grace. And if God ordained it, who will
stop it? Who? Jesus said, I give unto
my sheep eternal life, and no man will be able to pluck them
out of my hand. No man. Is that not security enough? Let the earth rejoice. You who believe you should rejoice
greatly because your God reigneth. And he who reigneth has saved
you and keeps you. What then have we to fear? What? We have nothing to fear. We do
fear. That's because of the old sinful
nature that remains. But I tell you, God has given
us a new heart. And this heart does something
the old man could never do. It bows down and worships God. May God give you grace and peace.