in Psalm 95. We'll read that
together and then I'll give you the background of what led me
here. Psalm 95, 96, 97, 98, 99 seem to have the same theme,
which is the praise to the Lord Jesus Christ, to God our Father,
to the Spirit of God, especially the Lord Jesus Christ here for
what He's done for us and where He is. But the call here is given
in verse 1 of Psalm 95 to the saints of God. He says, O come, let us sing unto the
Lord. Let us make a joyful noise to
the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence
with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise unto Him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God and
a great King above all gods. In His hand are the deep places
of the earth. The strength of the hills is
His also. The sea is His and He made it,
and His hands formed the dry land. O come, let us worship
and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, for He is
our God and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep
of His hand. Today, if you will hear his voice,
harden not your heart, as in the provocation, as in the day
of temptation in the wilderness, when your fathers tempted me,
proved me, and saw my work. Forty years long was I grieved
with this generation and said, it is a people that do err in
their heart, and they have not known my ways, unto whom I swear
in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest. Now,
actually, I want to read further here. I know it might seem tedious,
but let's keep reading Psalm 96 and 97 and 98 as well, at
least. And you'll see the theme as we
read this. Oh, sing unto the Lord a new song. Sing unto the
Lord all the earth. Sing unto the Lord. Bless his
name. Show forth his salvation from
day to day. Declare His glory among the heathen,
His wonders among all people. For the Lord is great and greatly
to be praised. He is to be feared above all
gods. For all the gods of the nations
are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Honor and majesty
are before Him. Strength and beauty are in His
sanctuary. Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds
of the people, give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give
unto the Lord the glory due unto His name. Bring an offering and
come into His courts. Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty
of holiness. Fear before Him all the earth.
Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth. The world also
shall be established that it shall not be moved. He shall
judge the people righteously. Let the heavens rejoice and let
the earth be glad. Let the sea roar in the fullness
thereof. Let the field be joyful and all
that is therein. Then shall all the trees of the
wood rejoice before the Lord, for He cometh, for He cometh
to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with
righteousness and the people with His truth. And then look
at chapter 97, "...the Lord reigneth. Let the earth rejoice. Let the
multitude of the isles be glad thereof. Clouds and darkness
are round about him. Righteousness and judgment are
the habitation of his throne. A fire goeth before him and burneth
up his enemies round about. His lightnings enlightened the
world. The earth saw and trembled. The hills melted like wax at
the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the
whole earth." The heavens declare His righteousness, and all the
peoples see His glory. Confounded be all they that serve
graven images that boast themselves of idols. Worship Him, all ye
gods. Zion heard and was glad, and
the daughters of Judah rejoiced because of Thy judgment, O Lord.
For Thou, Lord, art high above all the earth. Thou art exalted
far above all gods. Ye that love the Lord hate evil.
He preserveth the soul of his saints. He delivereth them out
of the hand of the wicked. Light is sown for the righteous,
and gladness for the upright in heart. Rejoice in the Lord,
ye righteous, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness."
And so it goes through these Psalms. You can read 98 and 99
as well. The thing that you see here is
that the Lord is exalted. And in these psalms there is
a call, and you see this right in the very first in chapter
95 verse 1, there's a call to God's people to come and sing
to the Lord and make a loud joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Now, what got me, as I was thinking
about this, I thought, In Matthew 10, Jesus sent the disciples
out to tell the people to preach, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And if you think about what that
means, we aren't used to having a king. We don't have a king.
We have a president who acts like a king, but we don't have
a king, per se. But in those times, the Israelites
had many kings. Kings were what they were used
to having, and all the nations around them had kings. And when
one king was being set up, it would be announced, the king
is coming, his kingdom is here. Or when a kingdom, a king and
his kingdom were about to overtake a people, they would send forth,
and had conquered them, they would send forth their ambassadors
and their messengers to those people and tell them, the king,
the kingdom is coming. And so when the Lord Jesus Christ
comes, he sends out his disciples and he says, the kingdom of heaven
is at hand. hand, which means the king is
here. The king is coming and is with
him all that he designs, that he intends to bring, and his
reign is coming with him. Normally when we think about
being overcome by a king or a kingdom, we're afraid. because it's going
to change our lives. It's going to change everything.
This new king, what's he going to be like? He's going to put
us as servants and make us slaves under him. That's what you would
expect from a king coming and announcing this. But when the
Lord Jesus Christ comes as king, the message here in the Psalms
is, come and let us sing unto the Lord and make a joyful noise
to the rock of our salvation. Because Christ coming as King
means that He is coming with salvation. He's coming with the
proclamation of His triumphs, His success, and the peace that
He established by His death on the cross. And so, one of the
things I think that I personally need to be reminded of is the
joy that I am supposed to have because the King is coming, because
the King is here, because the King's rule is being enforced. His word is being established.
And that's what you get in the first part of Psalm 95, O come,
let us sing unto the Lord, let us make a joyful noise to the
rock of our salvation. When you read the Bible, especially
in the Old Testament, and you see it fulfilled in the New,
there are certain themes that are so prominent, things that
are carried from the beginning to the end, and they stand out
so much that you miss them because they're so obvious. And if you think about that in
the Old Testament, you'll understand what I mean. Think about the
Old Testament for a minute and what do you think of? You think
of, for one thing, you think of this constant battles between
God's people and the nations around them. They're constantly
waging war and the nations around them are constantly at war with
them and they with them. And the Lord, ultimately is fighting
for his people. So there's this conflict and
the Lord is overthrowing the enemies of his people. And that's
one of the big themes in the Old Testament. The enemies of
God and his people and how God is going to overthrow them on
the behalf of his people. You just pick it up from Exodus
all the way through the end of the Old Testament. The Israelites
are constantly in battle in the land of Canaan, even in the wilderness. Remember the people that came
against them in the wilderness? Sihon and the king of the Ammonites
and all these people, the Moabites and then they get into Canaan
and there's the Philistines and there's the Canaanites and all
these people. Constant battle and you see David fighting Goliath
and Joshua conquering Canaan and you see the judges constantly
having to rise up and put down these kings that rise up against
Israel and then you see Israel taking siege and overcome by
their enemies and carried away captives and then you see the
Lord taking them, bringing them back. So that's one of the themes
you see in the Old Testament. And what other themes do you
think of when you think of the Old Testament? If you read the
Old Testament, even with your eyes half asleep, you can't miss
this, that there's a priesthood. There are sacrifices and offerings. And the whole Old Testament is
put under the umbrella of the priesthood. And God's people
being brought into right relationship with Him through the work of
the priest, the high priest, and the ministry of the priesthood,
the tabernacle, and the Ark of the Covenant. That's one of the
other themes you see. So there's the priesthood, and
there are the enemies, the conquest of them. But one of the themes
you see also in the Old Testament is not only do you see the priesthood,
but you see the prophets, don't you? The prophets throughout
the Old Testament are constantly speaking to the people on God's
behalf. But even perhaps more than those
is this emphasis on the king. The king and the king in his
kingdom. You see that before Saul was
made king, God was the king over Israel. And in fact, the people
were told that when they wanted a king, like the nations around
them, that they were rejecting God as their king. It's a huge
sin against God. But it was in God's plan, because
remember what he did first is he brought Saul, who was the
king that they wanted, and then he replaced Saul with David,
a man after his own heart. And he's teaching us through
all of these succession of kings that one day the king would come,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And his kingdom would be an everlasting
kingdom. And the dominion of his kingdom
would be across all heaven and earth and things under the earth.
And his kingdom would be a kingdom in which he would reign on behalf
of his people so that like David reigned and fought the Lord's
battles and then as he reigned over the kingdom of Israel and
eventually his son Solomon, he reigned in a way that brought
huge blessings to the people. Remember when David brought back
the Ark of God, it says in 1 Chronicles 16 that he gave everyone, every
man and every woman a good piece of flesh and a flagon of wine.
He blessed them. He gave them blessings. And then
remember when Solomon reigned, huge blessings. Silver was like
stones in the streets and gold was prolific. It was just wealth,
unimaginable. No wars. Peace was reigning.
All these things teach us about the kingdom of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And then you see this in the
gospels. What's the first thing we hear? Go tell the people the
kingdom of heaven is at hand. The king has come. And his kingdom
is the kingdom of heaven. It's not just a small area on
earth. It spans the whole universe. all angels, all men, small and
great, elect angels, and fallen angels, everything in the sea,
everything in the earth. He created it for this purpose,
that He might reign as King." And so you see this. And again,
when we think of a king and his kingdom, we naturally, I think,
are intimidated because the king has ultimate power. He has power
over our lives. But when the Lord Jesus Christ
comes, remember it says in Matthew 21, I think it is, he comes riding
into Jerusalem on a donkey. And it fulfills a prophecy from
Zechariah. It says, Thy king cometh lowly
and sitting on an ass, in a foal of an ass. And he brings salvation. Remember what they cried? Hosanna.
Hosanna to the king, the son of David. Hosanna. And Hosanna
means, oh, save us, because this was the reason why he came. In
Matthew 2, it says, the wise men came to Herod and they say,
where is he that is born king of the Jews? And Pilate asked
Jesus, are you a king then, in John 18? Verse 37 and Jesus said
I am in fact look at this verse It's one of my I love this this
in exchange between pilot and Jesus because Jesus doesn't say
much While they're taking him and falsely accusing him, but
when they ask him who he is and why he came he answers them in
John chapter 18 Jesus It says here In verse 33, Pilate entered into
the judgment hall, John 18, 33, Pilate entered into the judgment
hall again and called Jesus and said to him, Art thou the king
of the Jews? He didn't realize the import
of that statement, what he was really asking. Jesus answered
and said, Thou sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others
tell it thee of me? Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief
priest have delivered thee unto me. What hast thou done? In other words, why did they
deliver you to me if there wasn't something wrong? Jesus answered,
my kingdom, getting back to his first question, are you a king?
Are you the king of the Jews? He says, my kingdom is not of
this world. If my kingdom were of this world,
then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered
to the Jews. But now is my kingdom not from hence. My kingdom, I
wasn't made a king by men. My kingdom is from heaven. God
made me king. Pilate therefore said to him,
Art thou a king then? Almost mockingly. And Jesus answered,
Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born. And for this cause came I into
the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone
that is of the truth heareth my voice. And then you know what
happens. Pilate asks him, what is truth?
And so on. The point here is that Jesus told Pilate, I am
a king. A king, not just of earth, but
of heaven. And not just a king, not a king
appointed by men, but a king appointed by God. This is the
reason I came. to bear witness to the truth.
He's the King of Heaven. Truth is established by Him. He is the truth. And what He
says has ultimate authority and power. His word cannot not be
fulfilled. And so we get a sense of what
a king is because there's so many kings that are given to
us in scripture. We see where the word of the
king is, it says in Ecclesiastes or Proverbs, it says, there is
power. That's what God wants us to see. Where the word of
the king is, there is power. And so Christ comes with the
ultimate authority, the King of Heaven, the power of God's
throne. And He speaks and He sends His
messengers. And He tells us in this first
verse in Psalm 95, Oh, come, let us sing unto the Lord. Let
us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. When God
calls to His people regarding Christ, He tells them, sing to
Him. sing to him, and make a joyful
noise." David had appointed these men who were called singers to
play instruments. Some played with string instruments,
but Korah, I mean, I think it was, not Korah, it was I can't
think of his name, Asaph. Asaph played with cymbals, and
I can see this guy leading the timing of the whole chorus, singing
these psalms to the Lord, crashing these cymbals together, and the
sound of the stringed instruments joining in, and the sound of
these male voices joining together in chorus in strength and power
singing the given Psalms that the King David had given them.
And King David, if you know, he's the one who Jesus came to
fulfill. He's the son of David. He came
to ultimately fulfill. So King David giving Psalms to
the people to sing is the Lord Jesus Christ giving to his people
the Word of God, the Will of God in order to understand it
and from our hearts bring it in praise and thanksgiving to
God in Heaven because of what He's done in Christ. And He wants
us to come not with cowering and intimidation because of our
sin, because we ought to be that way. humbled and put in the dust
and there are times for that but here the king is on his throne
and he's on his throne because he has accomplished all of his
will he's he has successfully gained the victory over his enemies. And because he has done the will
of God, he is exalted by God and seated on his throne. And
being seated on his throne and crowned in splendor and majesty
and all of the hosts of heaven, crowning the King, the Lord Jesus
Christ, he calls for his people, now by faith on earth, to come
and sing to him with joyful song. and to be joyful before him.
If you were ever in the presence of a king and you came into his
presence sad, it was a dangerous thing. Nehemiah did that. He
came into the presence of the king and he was sad and the king
asked him, why are you sad? It gave the king concern. The
king shouldn't be concerned about your sadness because that makes
him doubt your ability. You must have a problem. You
should be Not sad, but rejoicing that the king has power over
all things. Not only does he have power over
all things, but he's a good king. Because he's a good king, what
he's going to do is right. It's to your benefit. And the
benefit that He brings is salvation from sin. That's why He came.
That's what He came to do. And He has been victorious in
it. Now I want to take you to a few scriptures to underscore
this. But the thing I wanted to emphasize
here is that Christ is the King. And He sends His messengers to
proclaim His Kingdom. and in proclaiming his kingdom,
he's sending a message through his ambassadors of peace, victory,
success, and his rule over all things, because of his conquering
his enemies and our enemies. And so he exhorts us, he tells
us, come! It's a command from the king,
but it's not a command of threatenings and thunder and lightning. It's
a command of joyful praise. He says, come! Realize what the
king has done. Enter into the joy of the king
with his people. Know that what he has done is
for them. And this is what you see in the scripture. Look at
Hebrews chapter 1. I'm taking it from the Psalms
into the New Testament because the New Testament obviously explains
the old. But in Hebrews chapter 1, it
says in verse 1 through 3, God who at sundry
times and in divers manners spake in time past to the fathers by
the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son. There's that big theme I mentioned,
the prophets. And now he says, it's all fulfilled
in the Lord Jesus Christ. They spoke of him, now he, the
ultimate prophet, has come. God has now spoken in him. And
he says, He's spoken in His Son, and when He mentions His Son,
He immediately transitions. He says, "...whom He hath appointed
heir of all things." Being the Son of God, God has made Him
the heir of all things. God has given everything into
the hand of His Son, as Abraham did to Isaac. Put everything
into His hand. As a king does to his son, David
did to Solomon. Put everything into his hand.
And the people crowned him king over everything. God has put
everything into the hand of his son. All of his will to do it. All of his people to save them.
All of his enemies to subdue them. All of his glory to make
it known. All of his will to proclaim it.
And his peace to proclaim it to those who were his enemies.
He sends his son with this authority. Everything is put in his hands.
He says, by whom also he made the worlds. He made them with
a purpose. The purpose was to bring about
the will of God. Who? The Lord Jesus Christ, being
the brightness of His glory. When we think of a king, we think
of his glory, we think of his majesty. Not only in his authority,
but in his wisdom, and in his beauty, and in his train. Everything about the king is
beautiful. And here God says, he, the Lord
Jesus Christ, has the beauty, the majesty, the splendor of
heaven's throne. And God himself, he's the brightness
of God's glory. And then he says, and he has
expressed image of his person. There's nothing true about God
that's not true about the Lord Jesus Christ. Upholding all things
by the word of his power. You see the majesty and the authority
he has here? Everything, the bugs, the radio
waves, gravity. Angels in heaven and fallen angels
and men on earth, small and great, all events in time, everything
is upheld by the word of His power. There's not a wiggle of
an electromagnetic signal that does not occur at His express
will. Rain falls and drought comes
and sickness and health, everything happens at the will of the King.
And he says, now, he brings it to the apex, to the maximum level
here in this greatness, he says, when he had by himself purged
our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high."
He accomplished the eternal will of God. Like David, when he killed
Goliath, one man destroyed all the enemies of God with a single
stone. The Lord Jesus Christ, in His
death on the cross, destroyed our enemies in His death. And
you see that. Because he fulfilled God's will,
because he was victorious over our enemies, because he saved
God's people, The shepherd brought the sheep back to God by his
own death, the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God.
Because he did that, God exalted him to the highest possible level. He put him on his own throne,
gave him his own authority and majesty, and he sat down on the
right hand of the majesty on high. Look at Hebrews chapter
7. He speaks about Melchizedek, the priest of the Most High God. He says, "...for this Melchizedek,"
his name is Melchizedek, "...the king of Salem, priest of the
Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter
of the kings, and blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave a tenth
part of all." First, Melchizedek is first, his name being by interpretation,
king of righteousness. That's what his name means. What's
your name? King of Righteousness. Here he
comes. Who is he? King of Righteousness. And what
else? He's the King of Salem, which
is King of Peace. King of Peace. That's our Lord
Jesus Christ. He fulfilled both roles. David
was the conquering king. David was the victorious king.
He subdued all enemies. Solomon was the king who reigned
in peace. By his death, Christ fulfilled
the conquering king. and in his resurrection and his
reigning in heaven he fulfills the reign of Solomon in peace
sending forth his messengers to proclaim peace to all who
are far off and all who are near to come and bow before him and
give him honor and recognize and give him praise because he
has conquered our enemies look at Hebrews chapter 8 verse 1
Now of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum. If we
add it all together and condense it, the conclusion is this. We
have such an high priest who is set on the right hand of the
throne of the majesty in the heavens. Our high priest is a
finished, he's accomplished high priest, and he's set on the throne
of heaven. Look at Revelation chapter 4. Revelation chapter
4 and 5 portray all of God's kingdom from the
perspective of a throne. All of earth and heaven are portrayed
in Revelation chapter 4 and Revelation chapter 5 from the perspective
of God's throne. In these two chapters, if you
just go through and underscore the throne, the throne, the throne,
you'll see it. That's the theme in these two
chapters. And it's put here in this point
in Revelation for a purpose, because all that follows seems
to be the pouring out of trouble and tribulation. And God wants
to establish for His people that before the trouble comes, know
this, Christ sits on the throne. Absolute control and power over
all things. And so you see in Revelation
chapter 4, just the first few verses here, He says, After this
I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven. When the
door is opened in heaven, it means there's going to be a huge
revelation. Not only a revelation, but access
is given. And who is our access? By faith,
we also have access by the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans chapter
5, verse 1 and 2. He says, 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. A
trumpet is loud. It's sharp. It commands attention. The voice of the one who spoke,
his voice was like a trumpet. And the trumpet here is speaking
of the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Revelation chapter
1, you see that in verse 10, John turns to hear the one who
spoke to him like a trumpet, and it was the Lord Jesus Christ.
So it's the Lord Jesus Christ speaking from heaven, as a trumpet
to John, he says, talking with me, and said, Come up hither,
and I will show thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately
John said, I was in the Spirit. And behold, what did he see?
A throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he
that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone. And there was a rainbow round
about the throne in sight like unto an emerald. And I'll go
on reading. He says, And round about the
throne were four and twenty seats, and upon the seats I saw four
and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment. And they had
on their heads crowns of gold. And out of the throne proceeded
lightnings and thunderings and voices. And there were seven
lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven
spirits of God. And before the throne there was
a sea of glass likened to crystal. And in the midst of the throne
and round about the throne were four beasts full of eyes before
and behind. You see the picture here? What
do you see? There's a lot of detail that is symbolic. But if you don't see anything
else, you see a throne. And you see God sitting on that
throne. And when you see it, it's like
the glory of God appears like these stones. It says jasper,
and as I understand it, it doesn't mean a jasper, it means more
like a diamond, a clear diamond. That you can see the clarity
of it, and it has these different glories that you see from different
angles, like a diamond when it shines in the light has all these
different things that you see, the light striking it in different
angles. And so he also sees a sardine
stone, which was a red stone, like blood red. And so you see
here the throne of God and God sitting on it in absolute control
and authority. And then there's a rainbow around
the throne, and from the throne proceed lightnings and thunderings.
So you get a sense that there's this huge storm. of terror, thunder and lightnings
and yet around the throne you see this rainbow because it brings
us back to what God says in Isaiah 54 and verse 7 through 10 how
that for a little while I hid my face from you in wrath but
now Look back at Isaiah 54. I'm not remembering the details
well enough to just explain it to you. Isaiah 54, this is speaking
about what happened at the flood. Remember what happened at the
flood? There was a great storm. And after the storm was passed,
there was a rainbow. Because it says here in verse
7 of Isaiah 54, "...for a small moment I have forsaken thee,
but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid
my face from thee, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on
thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. For this is as the waters of
Noah to me. For as I have sworn that the
waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so have I
sworn that I would not be wroth with thee nor rebuke thee." For
the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but my
kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant
of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee."
So when we see the rainbow around the throne and the thunders and
lightnings, it teaches God's people that God is a God of justice. He cannot tolerate sin. His judgments
must be against our sin. But at the same time, for God's
people, for poor sinners, the storm has passed because in Christ
God has made peace in the blood of His cross. And so you see
that in Revelation. But I want to look over further.
Look at Revelation chapter 5. Now, the one who sits on the
throne, God gives to his son, the Lamb of God, a book. And
in that book, there are seven seals. I mean, the book itself
is sealed with seven seals. Because the book represents the
everlasting will of God. And he gives the book, and he
takes the book, and a strong angel proclaims in Revelation
5, Who is worthy to take the book from him that sits on the
throne and open the book? In other words, to reveal it
and to fulfill it. And I looked, John looks in Revelation
chapter five, he says in verse three, no man in heaven nor on
earth, neither under the earth was able to look, to able to
open the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much because
no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither
to look thereon. Then one of the elders said to me, weep not.
Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David,
has prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals."
And now the verse I wanted to get to. He says, "...and I beheld,
and lo, in the midst of the throne..." Right in the middle of the throne.
"...and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders..."
You get the picture? Right in the middle of everything.
Sitting on the throne. What do you see? stood a lamb,
as it had been slain, having seven horns, perfection of strength,
and seven eyes, the wisdom of God, the all-knowingness of God,
which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth."
So what do you see? In the middle of God's reign,
The center of His purpose, the fulfillment of His will and His
glory is the Lord Jesus Christ. And what He has done, because
He's a Lamb slain. He has taken away the sins of
His people. He has subjected death under
Himself for them. He has put down Satan and everything
that was the consequence of sin, Christ has overcome in His death. And He reigns because that was
God's will for Him to do for His people. He reigns as the
Lamb. He's there for His people. No
wonder God tells us in Psalm 95 and 96 and 7 and 8 and 9,
Rejoice! Bring a joyful noise. Sing unto
the Lord. He's a great God. He's a good
God. What has He done? He Himself
has redeemed us. Look at verse 9 of chapter 5.
And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy. speaking to
the Lamb, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the
seals, for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy
blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation,
and hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall
reign on the earth. And look at verse 11 and 12,
And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about
the throne, and the beasts, and the elders, And the number of
them, 10,000 times 10,000, that's 100 million. And thousands of
thousands, that's millions of millions. The redeemed of the Lord constitute
a number that's huge. We often think that there's only
few that are saved, and it's true. But yet the number itself
is a large number. So many that all the elders represent
the whole Church of God, clothed in white raiment, round about
the throne, giving Christ glory and honor and praise and thanksgiving.
And they say in verse 12, saying, Worthy is the Lamb, with a loud
voice, worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and
riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. It's like they can't think of
enough superlatives. Everything is given to Him and
He's worthy to receive it, all of our honor. We own that He
has, because of His strength, He is our strength. He's the
strength of God. He's everything. All of our riches
are in Him. All of our wisdom is in Him. There is no glory and honor besides
His. And He has done this for His
people. It was for them. Look at Ephesians
chapter 1. I mean, the scene is meant to
take away our breath with the majesty of it and the blessing
that Christ has earned for His people. He says in Ephesians
chapter 1, In verse 5 he says, He has predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to
the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of
His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved, in
Christ. In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness
of sins according to the riches of His grace. You see what God
is telling us here? God's people, when they see Christ
in His glory, what is the benefit? What are the blessings they see
first of all? They see the riches of His grace.
The forgiveness of our sins. Redemption by His blood. When
we see a king, we always think that he's coming because he's
got all this power and intimidation, but Christ comes lowly and meek
with salvation that he himself worked out. He didn't come to
be served, he came to give his life a ransom in order to redeem
his people. The king has come as our redeemer,
our near kinsman. So we rejoice for a number of
reasons. Number one, because he was successful
in purging our sins as our high priest. He's the king of righteousness
and the king of peace. He made peace for us with God
in righteousness. He himself provided the obedience
God required of us and satisfied God in justice. And so that's
the first thing we see, the forgiveness of our sins. But we also see
that He came in our nature as man, in our flesh and in our
blood, with our bodies. And by doing that He made us
His brethren, God's sons. He came to redeem God's sons
who were adopted. God chose us to be His sons,
but in our fall we fell and He had to he had to pay the debt
and bring us out of our bondage and restore to us the inheritance
God predestined us to receive that we lost in Adam and having
done that he brought us into a reconciliation with God's purpose
so that God could lavish blessings on us abundantly because he intended
to do that and he did that the Lord Jesus Christ enabled God
to do that not only just to satisfy His justice, but to magnify all
of His perfections in doing that. So we see that in His work. First,
because He purged our sins. Second, because He made us sons
of God in His death. Third, because as He reigns over
all things, He reigns to bring about the will of God in everything. His purpose in reigning is for
His people. so that everything in heaven
and earth is ordained and ordered and brought about to fulfill
that will. And he tells this to us so that
In all the troubles and tribulations and even the persecutions and
sufferings of our lives, we'll see that the Lord is on His throne.
He's doing His will. He's fulfilling it. And so He
says here, going on down in Ephesians 1, He says, not only do we have
redemption, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of His grace, wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom
and prudence. This king that we have, he owns
everything in the world, but what he considers his riches
is his grace, his wisdom, his righteousness, having made known
unto us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure
which he hath purposed in himself. that in the dispensation of the
fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in
Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even
in him, in whom also, listen, we have obtained an inheritance,
being predestinated according to the purpose of him who works
all things after the counsel of his will. So He's telling
us what we have in Christ and what He has in us. We have an
inheritance in Him. And this inheritance was given
to us by God's purpose. And it's an inheritance that
we have because He conquered our enemies. And it's an inheritance
He gave us by lot, just like He gave us the children of Israel,
the land of Canaan. And all this comes about because
we have this reigning King. So now I'll turn back to Psalm. Remember in Isaiah 6, when Isaiah
stood and saw the Lord high and lifted up, he was in the temple.
And it was in the temple that he saw Christ reigning because
Christ reigns in the temple. Because that's where he offered
himself to God. That's where God has received
him offering himself for us. And that's where our salvation
is at. So in Psalm 95 he tells us these
things. Let us come before his presence,
in verse 2, with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise unto
him with psalm, for the Lord is a great God and a great King
above all gods." He just wants us to know, praise him because
he's great. He's great, not like in an intimidating way. That's
what we naturally think, but great in a way of salvation so
that we can come to him through his own blood. It's amazing,
isn't it? That he beckons us to come to
him on the basis of his bloodshed. Having established peace through
his own blood. This is a great God, isn't he? Verse four, in his hand are the
deep places of the earth. The strength of the hills is
his also. The sea is His and He made it. And His hands formed
the dry land. He's saying here that He made
everything. And not only did He make it,
but He made it for the purpose of fulfilling His will. The strength
of the hills is His also. I saw a picture and I have it
as a background on my computer. It's a picture of Mount Denali
in Alaska. And when you look at it, when
you see something that huge, with the foreground of the flowers
and the trees leading up to this mountain that's huge and covered
with snow. And then there's the blue background
of the sky and the clouds at the peak of it. You get this,
almost this dizzy feeling in your head because it's so enormous. And that's what the Lord is saying,
the strength of the hills. When you see the strength of
the mountains and the rocks, know that it's only strong because
God's word and it represents Christ's strength. His kingdom
is above all the kingdoms of the earth. Verse 7, for He is
our God and we are His people. I'm sorry, we are the people
of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. When the Lord says this to us,
it's a word of comfort. It's a word of fulfillment. He's
saying, I am your God. I've made myself your God. And I've made you my people.
So that you can say, the Lord is my God. And he says, and you
are my people. It's a mutual relationship. It
says in the Old Testament, the Lord's portion is his people. God's inheritance is His people. When God chose His people in
Christ, He gave them to Him. They became His treasure, His
inheritance. That's why it says in Matthew
that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a field with a treasure
in it. And this man seeking treasure
goes and finds the treasure in the field and he buys it with
everything that he has that he might have that one pearl of
great price. Because when God gave His people
to Christ, they became all His treasure. He espoused them to
Himself. He took them as His wife. He
purchased them with His own blood. They were the gift of God. He
purchased them. He obligated Himself for them
in marriage. And He gave Himself to them.
They are His people, His treasure, His inheritance. But then, on
the other hand, God says, He is our God, because our inheritance,
what did we just read in Ephesians 1, in whom we have obtained an
inheritance, our inheritance, what God is going to give to
us, eternal glory, is God Himself. He told Abraham, He says, I am
thy reward, and I am thy reward. Shield and I exceeding great
reward the Lord Jesus Christ gives himself to his people Can you think of what it's like
to have The everlasting life. What is he what does he describe
heaven like what is it like? He says it's like a place where
there's many mansions It's an everlasting habitation. It's
a city. It's a kingdom. It's all these
things he wants us to to to be overcome by the glory of it so
that we I can't fathom it's it's so great it's beyond our imagination
yes that's now you're getting it the riches of glory are given
to God's people he says in first Corinthians 3 21 through 23 he
says all things are yours whether life or death, or things present,
or things to come, the apostles, everything is yours. And here
the Corinthians are, they're just people on earth living day
to day with faith in Christ, calling on the Lord, and he says,
everything is yours. That's what he wants us to see.
Everything is yours in glory. Abraham looked for a city which
hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. It says in
Romans 4.13 that when God made promise to Abraham, he became
the heir of the whole world. So when God said to Abraham,
I'm going to give you Canaan, He was talking not about that
little piece of land on earth. He was talking about the whole
world. and eternal glory with the Lord
Jesus Christ, justification before God, acceptance by God Himself,
the adoption of sons and all the inheritance that God can
give His own sons He's given us in Christ, to be conformed
to His image, all the blessings poured upon us, lavished upon
us, given to us because God is our God. We are His people. That's
the covenant God made. And he's saying, I'm the covenant
God, the one who fulfills the covenant, who made the covenant.
And I'm telling you that I'm the one. Now, when you see these
things in the gospel, he's telling us in the Psalms, come before
the Lord, the King, the Lord Jesus Christ. He sits on the
throne, having obtained everything for us, and worship before him. Now, I want to take you to a
couple of places in closing. Look at Acts. The book of Acts
throughout tells those in the sermons that are brought of the
rule of Christ. He says in Acts chapter 2, he
said, remember what he says in Acts chapter 2 in the sermon?
He says, In verse 22, He says, You men of Israel, hear these
words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by
miracles and wonders and signs which God did by Him in the midst
of you, as you yourselves also know. Verse 23, Him being delivered
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have
taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. whom God
raised up, having loose the pains of death, because it was not
possible that he should be holden by it. For David speaks concerning
him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on
my right hand, that I should not be moved. Therefore did my
heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad. Moreover, also my flesh
shall rest in hope." He's speaking in the in the person of Christ
when he prophesies this way. He says in Christ's person, because
thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer
thine holy one to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the
ways of life. Thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.
Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch
David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is
with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and
knowing that God has sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit
of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ
to sit on his throne, And that was the point of his sermon.
Do you hear me? The one you crucified, God prophesied
before that would happen. And that he would raise him from
the dead and sit him on his throne. And he says, David, seeing this
before, spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was
not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This
Jesus hath God raised up. whereof we are all witnesses,
therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having
received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, has shed forth
this which you now see and hear. David is not ascended into the
heavens, for he said to himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit
thou on my right hand until I make thy foes thy footstool. Therefore,
let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made that
same Jesus whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ. You see
it? The message of the gospel is,
Christ, according to the will of God, was taken and by wicked
hands crucified, according to the will of God, slain, buried,
and raised again in triumph over sin and death, and all his enemies
seated in God's right hand. And now he proclaims from his
throne, sending his messengers by his Spirit, working in us,
overcoming our sin, giving us faith to look to him only. triumphant and just standing
and staring and looking at all his works and saying, the Lord,
my Lord, the King has conquered everything and has done the will
of God and that He is all my salvation. Come before His presence
with thanksgiving, sing unto Him, make a joyful noise to the
Lord, because our King is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of
heaven and earth. Peter says in Acts 10.36 that
this is the one, he says, I'll read it to you, you don't have
to turn there. He distills the gospel in these things. He says
in Acts 10.36, he says, The word which God sent unto the children
of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ, He is Lord of all. the one who is Lord of all sends
this message peace by my blood he sends his messengers with
his authority with his own authority if you reject his messenger reject
him he says Christ was made sin for us who knew no sin that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him therefore put down
your weapons be ye reconciled to God put away your Hostility
towards God because God has made him Lord in Christ in Acts 13. He says God has fulfilled the
same To us their children in that he hath raised up Jesus
again as it is also written in the second Psalm thou art my
son this day have I begotten thee as Concerning that he raised
him up from the dead now no more to return to corruption He said
and on this wise I will give you the sure mercies of David
And so he says in verse 38, Be it known unto you therefore,
men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you,
what? The forgiveness of sins. That
by him all that believe are justified from all things which you could
not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware therefore lest
that come upon you which is spoken of the prophets. Behold you despisers
and wonder and perish for I work a work in your days a work which
you shall in no wise believe though a man declare it to you.
The point is Christ is on the throne and he proclaims peace
and he requires the obedience of faith from us. And so, since
he's the king and he has all things, let's come before him
and say, Lord, give me that faith that I might see you. Because
all I see are the physical things of life and all I can see is
the dominion of my sin in my heart. And I find unbelief reigns
instead of faith. And I find doubtings, and I can't
repent, and I can't do all these things. But God wants us to lift
our eyes of faith to the Lord Jesus Christ on the throne and
see He's conquered all. Sin shall not have dominion over
you. You're under the reign of grace, which reign is a reign
by righteousness, Romans 5.21. This is glorious news. We should
be rejoicing with joy in our hearts. We should walk in life
in triumph without Sadness, because Christ reigns. Sure, we're sorrowing and sad,
but these things are only a facade over the realm of the kingdom
of heaven that to us is in the background, but it's the one
thing God sees in heaven. Christ is on the throne. Christ
reigns. He's done it all. The kingdom
of heaven is here. The kingdom of heaven has come. Christ has
come and he's finished the work. And now we say, oh Lord, I just
want to read one verse to you. Look at this in 1 Chronicles
16. Read 1 Chronicles 16 verses 1
through 35. But look at, this is where David
gives, at the return of the Ark of the Covenant, he gives this
psalm to Asaph and they're singing and everyone's rejoicing and
he says in verse 34 of 1 Chronicles 16, he says finally, in closing,
to the people of God, Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for he
is good, for his mercy endureth forever. And say ye, save us,
O God of our salvation, and gather us together, and deliver us from
the heathen, that we may give thanks to thy holy name and glory
in thy praise. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel
forever and ever. And all the people said, Amen.
and praise the Lord. Let's pray.