Psalm 97. I titled this psalm, The Sovereign
Reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Sovereign Reign of the Lord
Jesus Christ. You know, sometimes, and this
happens with me, and I'm assuming it probably does with you, sometimes
what we read in the Word of God, we seem to separate it from the
world we live in. Every now and then, I've got
to bring myself back to this is current, the Lord reigneth. That's current. That's present
tense. I like what one man said, he
said, it's eternal present tense. I thought that was a good statement,
the Lord reigneth. Now, we have here in this psalm
another enthronement of the Lord Jesus Christ and His sovereign
rule and reign. It depicts the Lord in mystery.
In mystery, you see that verse 2, clouds and darkness are round
about him. Mystery. It depicts him as mighty,
the mighty one. He comes and the hills melt,
the mountains just melt. As one scripture says, it flows
into the midst of the sea. And we have his presence is glorious
and his work is marvelous. It's marvelous, wonderful. I can use that word because that's
His name, the one doing it is wonderful, and His work is wonderful. It's a wonderful work done by
a wonderful person, the Lord Jesus Christ. And it tells us
here that those who worship idols in this psalm shall be ashamed,
false gods, whether it be imaginary or whittled out, they will end
up being ashamed in that day. But God's people will be happy. Happy. And I believe God's people
are happy now. I believe they're happy now.
I'm happy. You happy? I'm happy with the way the Lord
has arranged things. I wouldn't change anything. And
that's only by grace. That's only by grace. Because
sometimes it doesn't always feel good, does it? It's just not
conducive to this flesh. But to the Spirit, to that man
born of God, we say amen to the way of God, the ways of God.
We say amen. And we are happy because we remember
His holiness. What's that mean? that we remember
His person. We remember Him. The Lord said,
this do in remembrance of Me. And here it says here that they
are happy who remember His holiness, His person. Now, it starts out
in verse 1, and I just love these verses that start out like this,
because I can understand them. I can understand it quickly,
and I have no problem with this. In fact, when I read this, it
puts me at ease. The Lord, Jehovah, Jehovah Jesus
Christ. The Lord Jehovah. Here's the
first thing we have to establish in preaching, or if you're going
to witness to somebody. This is the first thing we established
is God's sovereignty. We establish the sovereign right
of our Lord to do as He will with His own. And His own is
everything. The earth is the Lord, the fullness
thereof, and they who dwell therein. It is all His to do with as He
will. He's the potter, we are the clay. He made us, we didn't make Him.
We are the sheep of His pasture. That's what it says in Psalm
100, He hath made us. He's made us and He's made us
believers. He's the one who enabled us to believe the gospel. He's
made us believers. Now, He's sovereign, we established
that, but now listen, the Lord reigneth exclusively. He does
not share His throne with any others. He's not in competition
with Satan. The Lord Jesus Christ is not
in competition with him. Satan has been subdued. His head,
his power has been crushed. And the Lord did that at Calvary. The place where it looked like
he was losing, the place that looked like he was a loser, he
was the winner. There is where he crushed Satan's
head. He crushed his power because he overcame death. He overcame
the power of death. He rose from the grave. Our Lord
reigns exclusively. You know, there are leaders in
this world There are dictators in this world who act as though
they were the sovereign. They are not. They will answer
to God. I can't tell you how many times
I've said that to people when they've talked about somebody
doing something and getting away with it, and nobody gets away
with anything. Nobody. Everybody will answer
to the sovereign King of glory, Jesus Christ. And then, listen,
His reign is exclusive and His reign is constant. It's constant. It's moment by
moment. He said, My Father worketh hitherto
and I work. He constantly is ruling the heavens
and the earth. He's constantly ruling among
the nations. He's constantly manipulating
and doing this and doing that. He's orchestrating this whole
thing. He's constantly ruling. We can't see it by these eyes
of flesh, but I tell you what, by faith we can see it. We see
Him move armies. We see Him bring down nations.
We see Him bring down leaders that you never thought would
be brought down. He's doing that. He's doing that. The Lord Jesus
Christ is doing that right now. That's why I said, from time
to time, I've got to put it all back together. You know, I've
got to realize that this world and this book, it's all going
together. It's all connected. It's not
separated. Nothing's happening separate
from this book. You know that? Nothing. Nothing's
happening separate from the eternal decree of God, that counsel,
that eternal counsel of God. Everything is going according
to His counsel. Everything. That's something
to rejoice in. That's something to rejoice in.
I haven't turned on the news for months. And I turned it on
for 10 minutes, about 2 or 3 o'clock. 10 minutes is all I can handle. And I'm telling you the truth,
10 minutes of it is all I can handle. And I just wanted to
bear this book in my heart. Because I tell you what, this
one doesn't disappoint me. Boy, when you get away from this,
it's aggravating. It's aggravating. You'd be in
a fight that fast. It'd be the flesh against the
flesh. But I remember the scriptures. We wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities and powers. I have the privilege
and responsibility coming here this evening and talking to you
from the Word of God. And I thought, I don't want to
be influenced by that. You want to be influenced by
this. I know what's going on out there.
I'm not ignorant of everything. I know what's going on. But I
know who's orchestrating it. And I don't want to get that
confused. That's just so terrible for a believer. The Lord reigns
exclusively, constantly, actively. I already covered that, really,
in what I've already said. And then He reigns irresistibly. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that did He wear in heaven and in earth. And I'll say this,
and in my home and your home. In my home and your home. If
God wants to take one out of my home, He's going to take it.
You know what? And you know what Job says? He
gives no account of any of this matter. He's not going to answer
to me. He's not going to. He's not going. He didn't Job.
You know, when he spoke to Job, what was it? Chapter 37, 38,
right in there. God speaks to Job. He never apologized. He never said, Job, let me tell
you why I did this. You know why God doesn't tell
us why he does what he does? Number one, he's God, he's sovereign.
We couldn't comprehend it. There's no need for him to tell
me. I can't comprehend what he does. I can believe, but I can't
comprehend. Not in this flesh. Maybe when
I leave this world and I have the mind of Christ, but you know
what? At that time, I won't care why.
Why did the Lord do this? It doesn't matter, does it? I
know this about the Lord. If the Lord did it, it needed
to be done, and it's the only way it could be done. You know,
you and I, we have options, don't we, we think. We have options. The Lord actually directs our
steps. But we think we have options.
But God, whatever God does, He's not in a straight betwixt two. He's not like, do I go left,
do I go right? Uh-uh. It's one direction, straight. Just like truth, straight as
an arrow. Straight. The Lord reigneth eternally,
exclusively, constantly, actively, and irresistibly. He gives no account of any of
His matters. And then this is spoken for the
believer's comfort and encouragement. The Lord reigneth. Now, false
religion doesn't like that. False religion hates the sovereignty
of God. The two things that false religion really hates is the
sovereignty of God, in particular, redemption. Those are the two
things that they hate the most. But you don't. You find comfort
at the end of the day, after you have dealt with this ungodly
world, and you go home. You can lay down in comfort knowing
the Lord reigneth. The Lord reigneth. It's encouraging
to the believer. And it's a great source of joy
for the believer to know that the Lord is on the throne. That He's at the helm. That the
ship is not out there floating all over the place and not know
where it's going. He's on the throne directing,
commanding. This is our Commander-in-Chief.
He's commanding. Listen to this. Revelation 19.6,
And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, and
as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thundering,
saying, Alleluia, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. The
God of all power reigns. And His reign, now listen, His
reign assures the establishment of the earth. This earth is not
going to be moved. It's not going to be moved. His
reign, His power assures the establishment of the earth. And
listen, His reign seated on the throne of glory is the strength
and protection of His people. He said, Father, You've given
me power over all flesh. and I shall give eternal life
to as many as Thou hast given Me. And the Lord's reign is a source
of real joy to this earth, His creation. He said, Let the earth
rejoice, Isaiah 55, 12. For ye shall go out with joy,
and be led forth with peace. The mountains and hills shall
break forth before you into singing. And all the trees of the field
shall clap their hands." You know, you walk out into the forest,
and the wind is blowing, and the leaves are just going back
and forth like this. Do you think of God? Do you think
of the trees rejoicing? They're His. Oh, there's a lot
I don't understand, a whole lot. And then we rejoice in this,
His reign is one of grace and mercy. Never a king like this
king, never a kind king like this king, or a loving king like
this king, or a wise king like this king. He makes no mistakes. And it says here, let the islanders
rejoice. Let the multitude of isles or
islands be glad thereof, coastlands or islands. You know, what is
an island? It's surrounded by water. This
thought really stuck with me. An island is surrounded by water.
So to speak, it's cut off. It's cut off. But you know what
he says here? Let them rejoice, because the Lord reigns, and
because of that, the gospel is going to those cut off islands. What does it say in Ephesians
2? Ye who sometimes were far off,
are made nigh by the blood of Christ." You were far off, far
away, out there on an island, and he sent the gospel to you.
But now listen, our Lord is mysterious, and His reign is mysterious,
and His judgments are mysterious. Clouds and darkness are round
about Him. Righteousness and judgment are the habitation of
His throne. Who by searching, can find out
God, who by searching. That is one
subject you cannot exhaust. You can study Jesus Christ and
you cannot exhaust the study of Christ. You can't say, I know
all there is to know about Him. No, we haven't even scratched
the surface. Paul calls it the unsearchable
riches of Christ. Now, unsearchable is not hard
to understand. It just means you can't search
it out. You can't plumb the depth of it. That's what it means.
You cannot exhaust it. God must reveal Himself if we
are to know Him. You know, if you'd never met
me, you would never know me unless I made myself known to you. What
if I was standing over in a corner somewhere and I was watching
you? You didn't have an inkling who I was or who I am. and I'm speaking in our language,
I decide I'm gonna go over to you and I'm gonna make myself
known to you. The only way we can know God is for God to make
himself known to us. Apart from that, we cannot know
God. God's on another level. He's on another level. And then,
listen, his providence is a mystery. It's a mystery. Who can understand
the providence of God? You look at all the commotion,
all the turmoil in the world, and all this going on in the
world, all this stuff going on in the world. You look at it,
and I look at it, it looks like a puzzle dropped on the floor,
doesn't it? But you know it's not. It's completely gone as
God has purposed it. He rules and he overrules. He
allows and he makes. He acts, he makes things happen.
He rules and he does all this in his providence. So this, we
don't complain about providence. Don't complain about the weather,
it's providence. And I do, I still say, well it's
too hot today. No it's not, it's the right temperature.
He takes it right to the nth degree. It's his temperature,
it's his day. It's his weather. Mystery of
it. Look over in Job 9. Back in Job
9. Job knew something of this. Boy,
I tell you, you read his Old Testament, they knew a lot. They
knew a lot more than we give them credit for. In Job 9, listen to this in verse
11. I'd like to read that whole chapter,
but I'm not. Lo, he goeth by me, and I see him not. Did you see God go by you today?
You probably didn't even think about Him. Did you? He goes by
me, and I don't perceive it. He passed on also, but I perceived
Him not. Behold, He takes away. Who can
hinder Him? Who will say unto Him, Doest
thou, or what are you doing? What are you doing? Look over
in Job 23. In Job 23 and verse 8, Behold,
I go forward, but he's not there. Now, God's presence is everywhere,
isn't it? Isn't He omnipresent? But Job says, I go forward, but
he's not there. Backward, but I cannot perceive
him. On the left hand, where he doth work, but I can't behold
him. He hides himself on the right
hand, and I can't see him. But the one thing he knows, he
knows the way that I take. When he has tried me, I'll come
forth as gold. You see, I don't know. I can't,
I can't. But he knows me. And he knows
that when he's tried me, I'm going to come forth as gold.
He knows how I'm coming out of this trial. I don't know how
I'm coming out. I feel like I'm going to fall
on my face. But he knows I'm going to be like gold, tried
in the fire. And then the mystery of salvation.
Listen. Well, look at this. The mystery of God working all
things together for our good. Can you understand that? Can
you understand God taking 10 of Job's 10 children away, that
that was for his good? It had to happen. He does nothing
but good things for us and to us. For Job to lose everything,
for Job to lose his 10 children, for Job to lose his health, that
was for his good. Now, how in the world can you
look at what's going on right now on the world in this nation? How can that be working for our
good? It is. As much as I complain about it,
it is. It's working for my good. He's making it work for my good,
my eternal good. One of the things is He makes
me sick of it, the world. He weans me from it. Don't you
find that so as you're getting older in the Lord? He weans us
from this world through trials and heartaches and letting us
see the sinfulness of this world and the sinfulness of ourself.
You're ready to go. He makes us ready to let go. to let go and fly away like a
bird being let out of a cage. Isn't that how you feel sometimes? I do. I feel like a bird trapped.
I feel like I'm trapped in this body of sin. I feel like I'm
trapped in it. And I am until God lays it in
the ground and then it's like opening up a cage and I'm out
of it forever. And then we have the mystery
of God. Clouds and darkness round about him. Mystery of God and
salvation. You know the angels' desire to
look into the things God has revealed to the believer? They
desire to look into those things. Listen to this scripture, 1 Corinthians
2.9, But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,
neither have entered into the heart of man the things which
God hath prepared for them that love him. But now He's revealed
them to us, it goes on to say. But it's a mystery. It's a mystery
to the human race. Somebody said this, faith and
understanding don't always go together. They don't always go
together. I don't understand, but I believe.
And the Lord said, what I say to you now, you don't understand,
but you will. You will. And righteousness and judgment,
righteousness and judgment, this is the foundation of His throne.
Don't you wish we had some righteous judges on this right now? Don't
you wish our court system had righteous judges that would give
righteous judgment? Don't you? Oh, wouldn't that
be good? That'd be good. Habitation there means establishment. He's telling us here. And you
know what? You and I rejoice in this. I rejoice in the righteousness
of God. I rejoice in that God is a just
God. I don't ever have to worry about
Him turning on me later. He's a just God. When He forgives,
He forgives and He forgets. It's over. I've seen some parents
discipline their children and they just go on and on and on. It's like give it up. You know,
once you're disciplined, it's over. Our Father forgives and forgets. It's over. It's gone. He remembers
our sins no more. No more. But these are the habitation
of His throne. Look over in Revelation chapter
4. In Revelation 4, John is called
up into heaven. Verse 1, After this I looked,
and behold, a door was opened in heaven. And the first voice
which I heard was, as it were, a trumpet talking with me, which
said, Come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be
hereafter. And immediately I was in the
Spirit. And behold, what's the first thing he saw? A throne. That's the first thing John saw
was a throne. Was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. He
saw a throne and the ones who were sitting on it. And you can read that later.
It's an interesting read. But His throne is established
in and by righteousness and judgment. You know, the Lord is known by
His judgments, it says in Scripture. He's known by His judgments.
And He's known that His judgments are righteous. And listen, righteousness and
judgment are the habitation, the establishment of His throne.
This assures us that God will never be a tyrant. He will never
be a tyrant. And this is something else it
assures, and this goes with this. He will never be a tyrant. The
Lord Jesus Christ will never be a tyrant. And absolute authority
and power is safe in His hands. It's not safe in my hands. It's
not safe in your hands. I'm telling you the truth. If
you and I had absolute power, we'd corrupt it. Even as believers,
we'd corrupt it. We'd corrupt it. But we don't
have to worry about that with the Lord Jesus Christ, do we?
And then we have His coming here in verse 3. I'm going to move
on through this. One thing I've learned about
a long sermon Anybody that doesn't want to be here won't come back
with the long sermons. They don't like a long sermon. But we have here in verse 3,
His coming. A fire goeth before Him, and
burns up His enemies round about. There's two things I want to
deal with here. First of all, the scripture says, our God is
a consuming fire. He's speaking here of judgment. The God that's being preached
today is a very weak, pathetic God. He's a weak grandpa like
me. I mean, my grandkids come around,
I just fall apart. I just fall apart. He doesn't. He doesn't. God, God Almighty, God Almighty
is God. He's not changed. He's a consuming
fire. All those who are not in Christ
will find that out. Just like all those who were
not in the ark, they found out what a flood meant. They found
out what that meant. God drowned every one of them. Judgment, He's saying here, when
He comes, He's coming to judge the world in righteousness. He's
not coming to judge the world as respective persons, you know,
no plea bargaining going on in the back room. No, He's going
to do so in righteousness. But this can be applied to the
gospel. Going forth as a fire and subduing his enemies and
making them his sons. We see here the illuminating
power of the gospel and the far-reaching effects of the gospel. You and
I, everyone here who believes, every one of us were enemies
in our minds by wicked works at one time, weren't we? And
God sent the gospel. You see, fire can represent grace
as well as wrath. In Exodus 3, 2, And the angel
of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the
midst of a bush. He spoke to Moses in a burning
bush. And he looked, and behold, the
bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed, and neither
was Moses standing there in front of it. How did the Holy Spirit appear
in Pentecost? Was it not flaming tongues of
fire? What about on the road to Emmaus
when the Lord spoke to them? They said, did not our hearts
burn within us? Fire can be very destructive. The fire of God's wrath is very
destructive. It's going to burn up this ungodly
world. But yet the fire of the gospel
can be warming. be very good. And His lightnings
enlightened the world. Verse 4, the earth saw and trembled. The lightning is bright, it's
powerful. You know, when you're in a lightning
storm, what's the first thing you do? You run for shelter. When God sends the lightning
of His Gospel into your soul, what's the first thing you do?
Run to Christ. You run to the Lord Jesus Christ.
When you get that flash of truth of who you are, who God is, who
Jesus Christ is, that runs you through the Lord Jesus Christ.
I tell you, lightning will run me in the house every time. Every
time. Lightning, bright, and I tell
you what, where it strikes, you know it. Where it strikes, you
know it. His gospel is powerful and enlightens
the world. Look how much more the world
has been enlightened since the cross. Look where we are now.
The gospel has gone all over the world. You find a community
where the gospel is preached, a home, and you'll just find
higher standards. You'll find higher standards.
Where it's preached faithfully, powerfully, you will. Now he says, his lightnings enlightened
the world and the earth saw and trembled. Now there's two types
of trembling. Felix heard Paul speak and he
trembled. His conscience, his conscience
bothered him. You know, God's written the law
on everybody's conscience that comes into this world. And you
can hear the truth and tremble but yet not believe it. It would
be like, Felix, Paul, I'll hear you another time. This is not
a convenient season. More convenient season. You know
what the most convenient season is for hearing the gospel? Right
now, where you're sitting. And I'm standing here with the
Word of God. And then there's that trembling.
that's caused by God giving life to the soul, God doing business
in the soul. That trembling. Listen. Mark
5.33, But the woman, fearing and trembling, this woman, remember,
had she issue of blood and the Lord healed her? The woman, fearing
and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down
before Him and told Him all the truth. But fearing and trembling.
There's a slavish, Fear that's caused by the law, by your conscience,
and then there's that fear that's caused by the work of God and
the power of the gospel. Paul fell down trembling on the
road to Damascus. And the hills, listen, verse
5, "...the hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord,
at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth." What majesty,
what glory belongs to God? Who? It says this in Nahum 1.6, Who can stand before Him? Who can stand before the Lord
God Almighty? Who can do that? No natural man
can. Those in Christ can, but nobody
else can. Even the seraphims cover their
face in heaven and they cry, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord
God Almighty. They cover their face. And what he's saying here is
all opposition melts. When the Lord comes in judgment,
and when the Lord comes in the power of the gospel, He can break
the hardest heart. He can melt the hardest heart.
He told Peter, the gates of hell will not prevail against you. When He comes in judgment though,
the world and all who are not in Christ are going to melt like
wax before the sun. You can read over in 2 Peter
3, 10 and verse 12. Read of the fervent, melting
with fervent heat, this globe, this globe, earth. And the heavens
declare His righteousness, and all the people see His glory.
Judgment comes from heaven. Go over in Revelation when you
get time and read. Just read over in Revelation
where all the vials come and all the plagues come. Where do
they come from? They don't come up out of the ground. God sends
them from heaven. And they declare His righteousness. Look over in Revelation 19. Verse 1, And after these things
I heard a great voice of much people in heaven saying, Alleluia,
salvation and glory and honor and power unto the Lord our God.
For true and righteous are His judgments, for He hath judged
the great whore which did corrupt the earth with her fornication,
and hath avenged the blood of His servants at her hand. And
again they said, Alleluia. and her smoke rose up for ever
and ever." The heavens declare His righteousness, His righteous
judgments. You can read that in Revelation
16.5 and verse 7 also. Now listen, He says here in verse
7, "...those who worship idols shall be ashamed in the end."
They'll be confounded in that day. These idols can't deliver. False religion can't deliver. Confound, confused, be all they
that serve graven images that boast themselves of idols. Worship
Him, all you, all you gods. Job in Job 6.20 says, they were
confounded because they had hoped. They had hoped to go to heaven.
Lord, we've preached in your name. We've cast out devils in
your name. We've done many mighty works in your name. And he's
gonna say, depart from me, I never knew you. They're confounded,
they're confused. But the preacher said... You better check what the preacher
said. Try the spirits, whether they be of God. That's what Scripture
says. And you better check what the
preacher said with what the Word of God says. But now listen, Zion heard...
Zion heard what? Of the judgments of God. You
know, when you hear of Christ crucified, what are you hearing?
You're hearing of the judgments of God. The judgment of God passed
on Him that I might go free. That makes me rejoice. I heard
that one day. One day I was watching my pastor
on television and I heard of the judgment that fell on my
Lord, my substitute. He satisfied God's justice and
I'm free. I'm Barabbas. I'm Barabbas, set
him free. I rejoice in his judgments. I
rejoice in the fact that Satan, he says, is judged. The prince
of this world is judged. He was judged at the cross. His
power was condemned. And then we rejoice at the final
judgment. I just read it to you. They rejoiced when the great
horror was false religion. And all those who followed were
cast into hell. She rejoices, listen, Zion rejoices in the
reign of her Lord, in the salvation of her Lord, and in the judgments
of her Lord. She rejoices. And here's another
reason she rejoices. For thou, Lord, art high above
all the earth, thou art exalted far above all gods. Our God is
God. Our God is God. There's only one God. There's
only one. You know, we've been going through
the book of Acts, and I told you, I looked it up, and the Romans had 41
gods that I had counted before I came out here. They had 41
gods. Aren't you glad you don't have 41 gods? One God. No God like Zion's God, and He's
highly exalted. Well, that reminded me of Philippians
2, 9 and 10, where it is said that He had been given a name,
that He has highly exalted Him, there the Lord Jesus Christ,
above every name. Every name. He's highly exalted.
He's seated at God's right hand on the throne. And you that love
the Lord hate evil. You can't love the Lord and evil,
too. You can't love the Lord and sin, too. Not possible. It's
an impossibility. You can't love both. You love
the one and you hate. There is really a holy hatred. The Lord said in the Psalms,
Do not I hate them with a perfect hatred. That's what He said.
Now where there is love, there's got to be the opposite. There's
got to be a hate. A hate of sin, a hate of darkness, a hate of
evil. That's what He says. He that loves the Lord hates
evil, hates sin. I hate it in myself. I hate it
in the world. Don't you just, you hate evil.
Especially in me. Now, here's another reason to
rejoice. He preserveth the souls of his
saints. Why have you not left the gospel?
Why have you not left? He preserved you. He's kept you
by his power through faith. He's kept you believing. If you
and I could leave, we would. We would. We'd leave right now.
We wouldn't come back if we could. Because we have that much sin
still in us. It doesn't take much, just get somebody a little
miffed and they'll want to stay home for a day or for a week
or two, or Sunday or two. Oh, He preserves the souls. He delivers them out of the hand
of the wicked. If He didn't, you and I would
be like a tennis ball going back and forth across the net. He's the deliverer and
preserver. And light is sown for the righteous
and gladness for the upright in heart. Which way do I go?
Which way do I go? This way. Light is sown. He'll guide you. I'm telling you, if you really
want to be guided, He'll guide you. If you really want to know
the Lord's will, and that's light. But it's sown for us. It's already
sown for us. And He sowed it. I thought of
this today. This light sown for them that's
on their journey home is like bright stepping stones with Scripture
written on them. That's the image that came to
my mind. I asked Henry one time when I was pastor at Hurricane
Road. I asked him about what, I didn't
know what to do, I'm in some situation, and he said, well,
the Lord never gives us a clear path. When the stone comes up,
step on it. When the next one comes up, step
on it. He said, you just step on one
stone at a time, there's never a clear path. But I tell you
what, when that stone comes up and you wait on it, it'll be
like a shining light. You'll know what to do. You'll
know what to do. As believers walk in the gospel
light, they grow in grace and knowledge of Christ, and they
have a path and a way that they know. Listen here in Proverbs
4, 18. But the path of the just is as
a shining light that shines more and more until the perfect day. Our path to glory. Looking to Christ gets brighter
and brighter. If not, you got a problem. You
got a problem. And then last of all, Rejoice
in the Lord, ye righteous, and give thanks at the remembrance
of His holiness. This image came to my mind as
I as I read that, holiness is the
dress of all his attributes. You know, people are known by
their conduct, aren't they? They're known by, you know, he's
like, that guy's this, or that guy's that, you know. God is
known by his judgments, and he's known by his attributes. And
the dress of every one of his attributes is holy. His love is a holy love. His
grace is holy grace. Everything about God is holy.
And this remembrance of His holiness is a remembrance of His person.
This is the one who saved us. This is the one who saved us.
Rejoice at the remembrance of God, Christ, who He is, and what
He's done for us. He's redeemed us. And in a little
while, and in a very short little while, We're going to be looking at
him face-to-face. I mean, look, we're getting gray-headed. We've
already lived the best part, I don't know about the best part
of our life, but we've already lived out most of our lives. I know I'm 66. I don't want to
live another 66. That'd be, I'm not going to do
the math. Every time you start to do math,
I start to do math from the pulpit, it just goes out the door. But we're almost home. Doug,
we're almost home. That's what I dwell on more than
anything right now. I don't know, maybe it is aging
that makes me dwell on it, but that's what I dwell on now more
than anything. I'm almost home. Bags are packed. And whenever the Lord comes,
he comes. But now listen. I'm going to rejoice in this.
My Lord, your Lord, reigneth. It's alright. Okay. And there are refreshments downstairs.
They still brought some stuff downstairs.