I want to speak this morning
on the subject, the Lord reigns. The Lord reigns. Nearly everyone who is, or who
would profess to be a Christian, if you said to them, the Lord
reigns, they would say they agree with you. But when you listen
to them give more detail about what they believe, you discover
that they do not really believe the Lord reigns. Because they
believe that there are things which are outside of God's control. Many years ago, Bonnie and I
watched documentary about tornadoes. And one of the scenes they went
to, I guess it was a small town that had been devastated by a
tornado, and they had their cameras at one of the funerals. And this woman, who was evidently
the pastor of whoever they were burying, who had died in the
tornado, She read where it is written
that there was heard the sound of
a mighty whirlwind, but the Lord was not in the whirlwind. And she thought this was a comfort
to the people. God didn't do this. God's not
the one that brought that tornado. Well, if he didn't, who did? And if he was not the one who
created it, directed its course, causing it to wreak whatever
havoc it did, take whomever he intended, leave behind those
he intended to leave behind, if that tornado was not in absolute
control, or in the absolute control of God. Wouldn't that be a terrifying
thing to think of? It would for me. I don't know what'll happen. Well, I don't know what's gonna
happen in 10 minutes. I know what I think's gonna happen,
but I don't know for sure. But if I ever look out my back window,
to the west, which I think is, is that the way tornadoes normally
come from? Well, whatever. We'll just pretend that's what
it is. But if I ever look out that way and I see a tornado
coming across that field behind our house, directly for our house,
here's one thing I want to know. That's God's tornado. And it'll
do what he intended it to do. And if it sucks me up and spits
me halfway across the country and kills me, it cannot harm
me. Now that's what it means when
the Lord reigns. People are glad to say the Lord
reigns when he causes what they consider to be good things to
happen. Someone gets sick, sick with
a disease that the doctor's figure is gonna take them out. People
pray, and the person is healed, seemingly miraculously. and survives,
and people say, oh, tell you the Lord reigns. What power?
Well, what if the person had gotten that disease, and the
people gathered to pray, and the person died? Does that mean
the Lord doesn't reign? Does that mean that that disease
was not really his, that that germ, that virus did not come
from him? Does it mean that it interjected
itself into his plan and caused, either overthrew his plan or
caused him to alter it? No. Not in the least. Every, and hear me plainly on
this, everything that happens, happens because God ordained
that it would happen. Did he ordain that the Allies
would win World War II? Yes. He also ordained that Hitler
would do what he would do and that Japan would bomb Pearl Harbor
on December 7th, killing 3,000 or so of our people. He says, I kill and I make alive. Everybody likes the part where
he says, I make alive. They don't much care for the
part where he says, I kill. He is the absolute sovereign
Lord of creation. And you can't make sense of what's
going on in this world unless you believe that. And you certainly
can't make sense of this book unless you believe that. It says here in verse 15, the
seventh angel sounded his trumpet and there were loud voices in
heaven which said, the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom
of our Lord and of His Christ and He will reign forever and
ever. It's interesting how the meanings
of words change over time. And if you mention the word apocalypse,
or you say something was apocalyptic, what most people think of is
something horribly destructive. The end of the world, you know.
This is a disaster of apocalyptic proportions. Well, our word apocalypse
comes from the very first word in the book of Revelation. and all it means is to uncover. Apo is the Greek preposition
for from, and kalupsis, I think it's how it's pronounced, means
to cover. And so this book, which is entitled
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, That word revelation is a translation
of that Greek word apocalypsis. It doesn't necessarily mean disaster,
because it's not disaster for everybody. It's disaster for
some, but not for everybody. It simply means the cover has
been taken off. And what cover has been taken
off? Very simply this, that which hides our eyes from what's really
going on behind the scenes. All that you and I can see is,
well, what we can see with these eyes. And I noticed this, and I hope
it's just not a case of old foggyism taken over, but the older I get,
the less I like what I see. the more of a struggle it becomes
to believe that those things which we hold to are actually
true. Of course, we have a very narrow
view of what's going on. We only know pretty much what's
happening to us. But when we think of the ways
our culture has been degraded, Things that were hardly even
talked about when I was a kid are now paraded on the streets.
We see our freedoms being attacked. It seems to me that those who
lead us, I can't name you one in whom I have any significant
confidence. And I hope I'm not just being
cynical, but that's just the way things
are. And we claim that God is in control. We claim that Jesus
is Lord, that he sits on the throne of the universe and rules
all things. And the people to whom this book
was originally written not only saw the same kind of things you
and I are seeing, for Roman culture was depraved. They were also
experiencing great persecution, suffering for Christ. The Lord had said, in my father's
house or many dwelling place, I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go, I will come again and receive you unto myself. And he had told them, told the
apostles on other occasions, that he'd return. And the apostles
preached that message. And they preached it as though
it were something that could happen any time. And the people
picked it up. And they actually thought, it
would seem, that first generation of Christians thought the Lord
was going to return while they were still alive. And the years
went by. if archaeological or whatever
research is to be believed, this book, Revelation, was written
in the mid-90s A.D., roughly 60 years after our Lord went
to heaven saying he was going to come back. And actually, 30 years previous
to that, Peter wrote his epistle, and he said even then there were
scoffers who were saying, where's the promise of his coming? You
all have been preaching, and you're saying this Jesus is coming
back. We haven't seen anybody. You say he rose from the dead.
We didn't see him. You said he's coming back. Nobody
showed up. And it was troubling to them. They said within themselves,
as you and I most certainly would if we were in their position,
they said, is any of this that we believe really true? Is Jesus
Christ Lord of heaven and earth? Does he sit on a throne or does
he not? Does he sit on the throne able
to bring about his will to perfection? Does He sit on the throne securing
all the promises He made so that we are safe? Or is He not in
control and we have followed a fantasy? Now, it's one thing
to make bold declarations of faith in Christ. It's another
thing altogether to do it with the threat of death hanging over
your head. And that's really what the book
of Revelation was written for. It was written for believers
struggling because what they could see didn't match what they
believed. And so, the Lord Jesus, this
book is called The Revelation, The Uncovering of Jesus Christ. And he says, let me pull back
the veil for you for a minute. so that you can see what's going
on from my point of view. And what's going on? Jesus Christ is indeed Lord. He's ruling everything. Even all the corruption we see. He has ordained it. He will punish
it in its time. But he is using it to further
his glory and to bring about the eternal welfare of his people. It's been two and a half years
now since COVID started. And I imagine that there were
many who either began to doubt that God was in control, or maybe
they were skeptics regarding God anyway, and mocked believers
with, where is your God now? Well, we can answer them just
as the psalmist did. Our God is in the heavens. He
has done whatsoever pleased him. Why did COVID come into this
world and kill? I don't know how many people
he killed. Why? Because God wanted it to. Now,
what is he accomplishing by that? I don't know. I'm not a prophet. There may be 10 million purposes
fulfilled in that, but I know this, that virus didn't get in
here unknown to the Lord. It is every bit as much His creation
as any of the medicines that have ever been created to deal
with diseases. The kingdom of the world the
world which stands opposed to Christ and to His people. That
kingdom has become the kingdom of our Lord. In other words,
He, you know, as God, of course, was Lord of heaven and earth,
He's Lord of everything. But this is speaking of Him not
only as God, God over all, blessed
forever, it's talking about Him also in His manhood. because
he is God and man blended together in a single unique person, the
Messiah. And in that condition, he has
been made Lord. That's what Peter said on the
day of Pentecost. This Jesus whom you crucify,
God has made him to be Lord. He is Lord right now, today,
October 30th, 2022. Everything that is happening
right now is the result of the will of the Lord Jesus Christ
being put into action by Him. It says, God works
all things according to the counsel of his own will. Who do you think
it is that's working things according to the counsel of his own will?
The Lord Jesus Christ is. Every bit of it. And this is not a kingdom of
a temporary nature. We've got an election coming
up. Let me show you just how cynical
I've got about all of that. Just yesterday, I think it was,
Bonnie and I realized I'm going to be out of town on election
day, and I didn't get my absentee ballot. I said, well, I don't
care. I really don't. There was a time when I cared
a lot. There was a time when I could get tied up in knots
over who wins an election. I've become a little bit cynical
about it. Part of it's just because of my disappointment with all
the choices we have, where none of them seem good to me. Someone
once said our two political parties are just two wings on the same
chicken. That's true. But you know what
I've come to realize? I mean, I've always known it,
but I guess I've come to realize it enough that I just don't worry
about it anymore. It doesn't matter who's in the
office. God put him there and he's going to do exactly what
God intended him to do. And even if it brings pain and
suffering, yet it brings good to the people of God. And we do these elections, and
I think this is a good thing, you know, every two years, the
House of Representatives, they have to be re-elected or their
term of office is over. And then the Senators, what is
it, six years. The President gets four. And nobody can stay in office
forever. But what does it say? kingdom
of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ,
and He will reign forever and ever. Now, I don't know how long
He's going to let this old world roll along. There is nothing
written in the Scriptures which must yet be fulfilled before
the Lord Jesus can return in power and great glory, and by
His voice cause the dead small and great to stand before God
to be judged of Him. It could be that this day will
not finish without the whole entire creation
being finished. And it might be a million years
from now. I have no idea. And anybody that tells you they
do is mistaken. I do know there's going to be
an end to it. He will make new heavens and new earth, because
these are a mess, and they can't be fixed. And when something
can't be fixed, what do you do? You buy or make another one.
That's what the Lord will do. But He will reign. This will
not change. He will reign forever. Now, we, particularly as Americans,
don't like the idea of someone reigning. It's kind of against
our political DNA. We elect people so they may govern. That's a different thing. government, you know, a person
who governs is simply someone who takes the laws as they are
presently written and enforces them. And while he may have some leeway
in how he does that, particularly with regard to our president,
who's the head of the executive branch, He doesn't have a lot of wiggle
room. Now, I know they invent some, and they do things they're
not supposed to do. But if they stayed within their
constitutional bounds, it's very limited what they can do. They
can govern. That's all. But our Lord Jesus
is not just a governor. He's a Lord. He reigns. He not only executes the laws,
it's He that makes the laws. and he doesn't put them up for
a vote. It's not he that presents an
agenda, it's he who has ordained a plan for this reality and it
will happen. He reigns forever and ever and
nothing will ever change that. Even, even when this creation
is over. He continues to reign in the
new creation. And while our natural selves
may not like this, because we like the idea of self-determination,
what is the response in this vision that John has?
And this vision says, this goes on in heaven. It says in verse
16, and the 24 elders who were seated on their thrones before
God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, We give thanks to
you, Lord God Almighty, the one who is and who was, because you
have taken your great power and have begun to reign. Now, not
as though God wasn't reigning before then. After all, it's
God who by the word of his mouth brought our reality into existence.
What it means here is simply we see it. We see it. You have installed your king
on your holy hill, said the psalmist. And the heathen may rage. This
microphone's getting pulled. away from my face, which I don't
blame it for trying to get away from my face, but it has to stay
up here to do its job. But we give thanks, and it's
a reason for thanks to know that our God reigns. Isaiah 52, I
think it's verse 12, how beautiful on the mountains are the feet
of him who brings good news. Didn't have telephones or internet
or anything like that. If a message was going to be
transmitted, somebody had to carry it on foot. And especially during wartime,
they would be looking to see, is there any news from the battle? that how beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace,
who says unto Zion, your God reigns. Now what's interesting
is those words that are used there are the same words used
to describe the gospel. I bring you good tidings, good
news of great joy. What is the gospel? It's publishing
peace. But what all is this good news, this published peace, what
is it founded upon? Your God reigns. It's a wonderful
thing that our Lord Jesus Christ died for us, but it would accomplish
nothing if he did not reign for us. You see that? We'd be as lost
as we were before. He reigns. You have begun to
reign. The nations were angry and your
wrath has come. The time has come for judging
the dead and for rewarding your servants, the prophets. Talking
there about those Old Testament prophets who told of Christ who
was to come. What is their reward? That the
very things they said would happen are happening. He has come. He
has done what they said he would do. They've been vindicated.
They were mocked. They were persecuted. They were
cast out and hated in their day. But by the overwhelming sovereign
rule of Christ, they've been proven right. That is their reward. The prophets and your saints
and those who reverence your name. Oh, this world has no reverence
for the name of Christ at all. Don't you dare diss some politician. Isn't this something? You get in more trouble maligning
some politician than you do degrading the God of heaven. Now, given the polarized nature
of our society, you diss a politician, about half of the country is
going to be mad at you. You disregard or disrespect discredit
the politician from the other side, well, then the other half
of the country is going to be mad at you. But isn't it something
that they can take the name of Jesus, Lord of Heaven, and drag
it through the ditch and mix it with all their horrible vulgarities? And nobody bites an eye. But realize this. All of it will
be dealt with in His time. Some of it will be dealt with
in grace, because were we not all blasphemers of one sort or
another until the Lord saved us? We may have withheld our
mouth from cursing, but we all had a view of Him that brought
discredit to Him. And we certainly showed that
we did not believe him or honor him as he should because, or
as we should because of our lack of interest in him. Oh, some
of these who disregard him and discredit him, he treats with
grace and he comes and by his sovereign Lord power, he takes
hold of their hearts and changes it. And they become willing subjects
in his kingdom. but others He'll deal with in
judgment. And those who do not reverence
His name, according to Paul, someday will be brought before
Him, and they will bow and confess that Jesus is Lord. He was not just a name that they
used to accent something they said in anger. He held and holds
their souls and their destinies in His hand. Turn over for a minute to Revelation
19. Verse 6, then I heard what sounded
like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters, and
like loud peals of thunder shouting, hallelujah, for our Lord God
Almighty reigns. People, that's another word they
use flippantly, hallelujah. And they'll apply it to the smallest
of blessings and forget that that word, which by the way is
a word of exhortation or command that means praise Jehovah. The yah at the end of it is a
shortened version of God's name. Hallelu is in Hebrew, it's a
command to praise, so praise YAH. And why do we praise Him? Because He reigns. It's an occasion
for great joy to the believer. Think of it, brothers and sisters.
Now, I know some of you are undergoing
some really serious difficulties. And I'm sure there's a lot more
of them that I don't know about. And in the midst of all of that,
it can be difficult to find something really worthy of a hallelujah. Here's one. The Lord God Almighty
reigns even over your difficulty. You say, well, if He reigns over
my difficulty, why doesn't He get rid of it? Because in His
wisdom, He knows it's better for you to have that difficulty
than to not have it. And He is using it to bring about
your eternal good. And under the phrase, all's well
that ends well, it will end well. Even if it means the end of your
life here, it will end well. Hallelujah, the Lord God Almighty
reigns. Now, believe it or not, It was
not either of those texts of scriptures that brought me to
this, but several scriptures and psalms, and we're certainly
not going to get to all of them. But let me note a couple. In Psalm 99, verse
1, the Lord reigns, let the nations tremble. He sits enthroned between
the cherubim. Let the earth shake. You know
one reason there's no fear of God among most of the people
in the United States? They've not been presented with
a God worthy of fear. Really, what's there to be afraid
of? The preachers keep telling them,
you know, Jesus is trying to save you. He's doing all he can.
All you got to do is let him, really. If that's true, and I've heard
people say this, well I'll just live like I want to and then
just at the end I'll let Jesus save me. That's why Paul summed up all
the evil of men in this, there is no fear of God before their
eyes. But understand this, that God
whom men by nature despise and want nothing to do with, he's
sitting on an immovable throne. And while they do not admit it
and probably don't believe it, their destiny is in His hands. Then it says in Psalm 97 verse 1, the Lord
reigns. Let the earth be glad. Let the
distant shores rejoice. Now, wait a minute. He just said
the Lord reigns, let them tremble. Let the earth shake. Now, how
come the Lord reigns, let the earth be glad? Well, for this
reason, the Lord reigns. Let men and women fear and tremble
at that, but also let them rejoice that it is the Lord who reigns,
because if it was anybody else, the end would be now. We all think that if we had power,
we'd do good. And yet we have a long line of
human beings that prove exactly the opposite. The only reason
that this world continues on is because God reigns. People
think the devil's in charge of some things. If he was, they'd
all be utterly ruined. There's no fight going on between
the Lord and the devil. You ever have a little kid get
mad at you and come at you to fight you and you just kind of
do this? And they're swinging their fist and they're mad and
they're spitting and all that kind of stuff and you're, oh,
good grief. That's how the devil is to the Lord. He's no threat
to the Lord. He is a pawn in the hand of God. He moves the devil wherever he
wants on his chessboard to accomplish his will. And the same with all
the other people in this world who think they're so powerful,
who seem so powerful, and so dangerous. Let me tell you, here's
a reason for the whole earth to be glad. These guys that look
to be in charge, they're not. The Lord is. Why do you and I enjoy the freedoms
that we do? Not because of those men who,
about 250 years ago, sought independence from England and then wrote the
Constitution. Now, you know, the old phrase
is, give, the devil is due. And as men, I understand that
that was some remarkable things accomplished, but I know why
they were accomplished. They were accomplished because
the Lord reigns and He could reign even over the hearts of
those wicked men to make them right up as good a political
system as man has ever come up with. And we will have those
freedoms as long as God allows it. I'm glad He's in charge. And
if the day comes within my lifetime when the so-called leaders of
this country have grown so arrogant that they believe they can reach
out and touch God's people. And what does he call them? He
said, you're the apple of my eye. What would you do if somebody
reached out and poked you in the eye? These people think they
can do that. And they begin to persecute us
and make it difficult To live in this country as a believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ, if that day comes, here is something
for the earth to rejoice in. The Lord reigns and he is of
unimaginable mercy and grace and patience. Yes, his patience
will come to an end, but oh, how long the door of grace has
been opened. And then what is our message? We claim we preach the gospel.
Gospel preaching as I was taught it was this kind of insurance
plan. But it says this, say among the nations, the Lord reigns. And if you do, you'll be mocked
because it doesn't look like he is. They'll think you're an idiot
for trusting in the name of a God you cannot see. and whose will
seems to be subverted at every hand. That's simply because we
can't see things the way God does. We don't go out and say among
the nations God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your
life. We say the Lord reigns. Bow and
give him reverence. Bow and worship him. own him as Lord because the day
will come when he will destroy every rebel. The Lord reigns and we all need
to rejoice in it. That's part of our message because
we have on the throne of the universe, of the universe, one
who is unlike all the other gods that have been put forward by
men. As the prophet says, who is a pardoning God like you who
pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant
of your inheritance? For you delight in mercy. Oh, isn't it a difficult time
when someone consumed with justice and punishment and vengeance, gain some reins of power. The only one who can properly
administer justice is God. And yet he says, I delight in
mercy. Do you need mercy? Rejoice, the Lord reigns and
he delights in mercy. Do you want your due? Tremble, the Lord reigns. And if you want what you deserve,
he'll give it to you. But if you want mercy, he'll
delight to give you that. The Lord reigns. God be thanked.