It's really a high honor to get
to exalt the name of the Lord Jesus Christ back-to-back. One of the many things about
preaching the gospel is that I'm never looking for a new message. I may wonder from where I'm going
to preach Christ in the Scriptures, but I'm never wondering what
I'm going to preach. In my mind and in my heart is
who I'm going to preach and from where in the Word of God am I
going to preach Him from. You search the Scriptures. They
are they which testify of me. Now if I search the Scriptures
and I miss Him, boy, that's a sad day for both of us. That's a
sad day for both of us. Now I want you to turn to Psalm
93. We've been going through the
Psalms back at home, Spring Lake, and I preached from this the
other day and I had, boy, it just blessed my heart to study
of it and I looked at it again. A celebration of the reign of
Jesus Christ. We have something to celebrate,
don't we? We are a people. If any people on this earth have
a reason to shout, it's us. The scripture says make a loud
noise. It's like when a king has achieved
a great victory and he's coming back in and the people are shouting. The king is coming. Lift up your
gates over there in Psalm 24. I believe it is. We have something to celebrate. We have a reason to celebrate
that the world knows nothing of. The church as a whole, as well
as each member of the church, has a reason to shout and to
rejoice. Because our King, now listen,
our King reigneth. Our Lord reigneth. That makes for a soft pillow
to go to bed on at night. We live in a wicked world. The
whole world lies in wickedness, the Bible says. And as I get
older, I thought, that's so true. Don't you see it? Don't you see
the evil and the wickedness of this world as days go by and
years go by? It's just my soul. And yet, you and I can go to
sleep at night knowing the Lord reigneth. The Lord reigneth. My confidence and my comfort
is not in the might of the U.S. military. It's in the might of
my Lord, who's clothed with strength. It says He's clothed with strength. We have the King of kings and
the Lord of lords. We have the God of heaven and
earth as our God and King, and He reigneth. It says in Isaiah 52, 7, How
beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of Him that bringeth
good tidings, that publishes peace, that bringeth good tidings
of good, that publishes salvation, that saith unto Zion, Thy God
reigneth. I couldn't wait to get here this
morning to tell you one more time, Thy God reigneth. If I could just, it's almost
like I could just have us stand and for the next hour just shout,
thy God reigneth, the Lord reigneth, the Lord reigneth. Let you leaders
of the world, you leaders of this earth, listen to us. You
shut up and listen to us. The Lord reigneth. The Lord reigneth. You don't reign, you little peons. You don't reign. Pilate said,
don't you know I have power? Then that's when the Lord kept
his mouth shut up until that time. It's like, oh, now wait
a minute. You have no power at all except
to be given you from above. And he could have just as easily
said, you have no power at all unless I give it to you. Because
I'm from above, you're from beneath. When that army came out to get
him, and they were looking for him, and he said, I am, what
happened to the army? They fell down. He had to give
them the strength to get back up and finish their job. The Lord reigneth. This psalm
is about the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there in verse
1, the Lord reigneth. Just write it out like this.
The Lord Jesus Christ reigneth. Jehovah Jesus. The Lord reigneth. And when you see that E-T-H,
that means continuing. The Lord reigneth. He reigns
absolutely. He has no competitor. The devil's
not a competitor to him. The devil's his devil. He created all the angels, didn't
he? The devil's not out there running
loose. He's not out there running loose. He's under the control
and the authority of Jesus Christ. When he wanted to touch Job,
he did not just go and touch Job. He had to go to the Lord
and get permission. And that hasn't changed. He has no competitor. He has
absolute power. It has been said, and it's so
with men and women, Absolute power corrupts absolutely. You
and I, even as believers, if we had absolute power, we would
corrupt it. That's sad, but it's so. But
we do not have to worry about the Lord Jesus Christ ever corrupting
His power. Because it says in the Scriptures
that He loveth judgment. Judgment, justice, righteousness.
Our king loves righteousness. So he'll never, his power will
never be corrupted because a person's strength, a person's strength
is what they love. It's what they love. If you love
sin, that's what you're going to go after. If you love Jesus
Christ, you're going to go after him. If you love righteousness,
you're going to go after righteousness and godliness. The Lord reigneth. He reigneth presently. That's
right now. The whole world, the whole universe,
the whole host of angels, those who elect and those who are fallen,
all of every person on this earth, everything that exists, the Lord
reigns right now over them. They go and come at His authority,
at His Word. At His Word. He reigns presently. He reigns continually. There's
never a check on His reign. There's no check on His reign.
No one can say unto Him, what doest thou? Why are you doing
this? You see, there's no check. He reigns positively. You know
that right now that Jesus Christ seated at God's right hand is
reigning over everything for our good? You know that? He said,
well, some things that are going on in my life right now are not
any good. If you're a believer, it's good. Now, if you're not
a believer, there's nothing for you good. But everything's for
you. He's reigning for your good.
He's reigning for our good in things that are happening we'll
never know about. You take all the hosts of heaven,
the stars and all that, you know those are for our good. The sunshine. We don't think much of it. It
gets too hot, we complain. But that sunshine is for our
good. The rain that's just come down, we gave thanks for it.
It's for our good. The Lord knows we need it. It's
for our good. He didn't rain because for any
other reason than for our good. Our good and the good of His
creation. He reigns positively. He reigns righteously. He reigns
sovereignly. It's written in Job. He gives
no account of any of his matters. It's none of your business. They
said, what about John? He said, you don't worry about
John. You just go do what I told you to do. It's none of your
business. A sovereign doesn't have to give
account, does he? Not a true sovereign now. A true
sovereign doesn't give account. The subjects give account. We
are His subject. And this is a controversy with
lost men and devils. Who is going to reign? Whose
will is going to be done? Well, the Bible says His will
is going to be done. I will do all my pleasure. That's
what He says. And as far as this matter is
concerned, it was settled long before creation. Who's going
to reign? Jesus Christ is the reigning king from everlasting
to everlasting. Isn't he? He was born king. Where is he this born king? He
was born king. He didn't wait for someone to
die so he could be a king. He's born king. He came in as
a king. He went out as a king. He sits
as a king. He's coming back as a king. He's
our king. There's no king like our king.
Our king owns it all. He owns it all. Someone said
he didn't have to take out a copyright on the birds' songs because they're
his. They're his. The Lord reigneth. Right now, you know what's going
on right now? Right now. I know, I can tell you what's
going on right now. You think, well, that's interesting. He's
subduing all things to Himself. When He finally subdues all things
to Himself, then He's going to deliver the Kingdom up to the
Father. But right now, with all what looks like commotion to
us going on throughout this world, Jesus Christ right now is subduing
all things to Himself. That's what He's doing. He's
subduing it. He's not trying to. He's doing it. He's doing
it. Now, this being so, think how
great He must be to rule over the universe, men, angels, good
and bad, all stars, all planets. Think how great He must be for
everything to submit to His Word. You know, the Scripture says,
where the word of a king is, there's power. And everything
submits to His Word. You know the world right now,
this earth we stand on, we can jump up and down on it. You know
it hangs in space only by His Word. You know it says, by Him
all things are created. He has created all things and
by Him all things consist. You know what that means? That
means maintained. He created all things and by
Him all things are maintained. I'm not worried about global
warming. I'm not worried about this and that going on, the earth
decaying. By Him, it's maintained. He's
the husbandman. It's His. It's His. And how wise must the Lord Jesus
Christ be to order all things to work together in harmony in
harmony to bring all things under His authority and to serve our
good. How wise! How wise! That's why He's called
the Wisdom of God. And then His reign is glorious.
He's clothed, it says, with majesty. He's not clothed with shame. He's not clothed with weakness.
Our Lord is no weak sovereign. He's no weak monarch. He is clothed
with majesty. The Lord is clothed with strength.
Majesty means supreme greatness. He is clothed with supreme greatness. He is clothed with supreme authority. He said, all authority is given
to me in heaven and earth. Well, it would be wise to go
to the one who has all authority, wouldn't it? Don't go to the lesser. Go to
the greater. He has all the authority. The
kings of the earth clothe themselves in material. That's what they
are clothed with. You know, they walk out and they
get on the royal garb that someone else has made, some seamstress
somewhere. You know, they put it all together
and they've made it. But our Lord is not clothed with
such garb. He's clothed with strength and
power, majesty, your majesty. I like that. I like to call him
your majesty. That's a good name. That's what
it means. Supreme greatness, authority,
sovereignty. It means sovereignty. A title
used when speaking to or of a sovereign. He is clothed with majesty. But
our king is clothed with strength and majesty. And they're His,
listen, they're His by right, not His because someone else
made it and sent it to Him. They say your robe came in today.
You know what He's clothed with? His royal attributes. Power. Holiness. Strength. Unchangeable, immutability,
omnipotence, omnipresent God. He's clothed with His royal attributes. That's what He's clothed with.
His majesty and His strength, listen, is His character. It's
His character. Hannah said, There is none holy
as the Lord, for there is none beside Thee, neither is there
any rock like our God. There's none like Him. And then
our Lord, He reigns in power. In power. The Lord is clothed
with strength. This is good news now. This is
good news. He's clothed. He's wrapped about
with strength. Listen, the old king said, Daniel,
he said with a lamentable voice. Let me read this. I don't know
if I have that marked or not. I did. Well, anyway, let me read
it to you. I got it written down. I wrote it down. There in Daniel
620. Remember when he was cast into
the lion's den? The king said with a lamentable
voice. He said, Daniel, is thy God able
to deliver thee? He said with a lamentable voice.
Oh, Daniel. Daniel, is thy God able to deliver
thee? That's a good question. Is thy
God able to deliver thee? Well, the scripture says He's
able. He's able to save unto the uttermost
them that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make
intercession for them. Is thy God able to deliver thee? Is He able to deliver you from
your sins? Is He able to deliver you from
your sorrows, your grief? Your pain, you know, the trials
we go through and the pain that it causes. Is God able to, is
He able to make the sun shine again in your life? Is He able
to lift you up out of the dust? Is He able to cause you to rejoice
and put a song in your heart? Is He able to do that? Well,
if it's the God of Daniel He is. If it's the Lord Jesus Christ,
He's able. I have laid help, God said, upon
one that is mighty. Is thy God able to deliver thee? He's clothed with strength. Ask
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They heated the furnace up seven
times hotter than normal. And they threw them in there.
And the king looked in. And he says, we put three men
in there. But I see four. One looks like
the Son of God. One looks like there's another
man in there. We only put three in, but there's
four in there. You know what the Lord said in Isaiah? When
you go through the fire, when you go through the water, I'll
be with you. I'm not going to stand on the
other side and wait for you to come out, and I'm not going to stand
over there and watch, make sure it doesn't hurt you. I'm going
to be right there with you. And when you go through the fire,
it's not going to burn you. It's not going to kindle upon
you. You know, when they came out of that fire, they didn't
even smell of smoke. I tell you, when God brings you
through a trial, a hard trial, you come out of it. Job said,
when he has tried me, I'm going to come forth as gold. gold. Not even the smell of smoke is
going to be upon you. No, it's not. No, no. Is thy
God able to deliver thee? He's clothed with strength, wherewith
He's girded Himself. There's no weakness in Him. There's
no weakness. Take any leader that's ever existed
on this earth, as far as men go, and you can find plenty of
weakness. Plenty of weakness, but none
in this one. Pilate examined him and said,
I find no fault in him. And we can find fault in anything,
can't we? We can find fault in anything. But he couldn't find
fault in Christ. The Father found no fault in
him. Satan has come to have nothing
in me. There was nothing in him for Satan to get his teeth into.
There was nothing there, no fault in him, no sin in him. This is
part of his strength, his holiness, his character. Our Lord only
had the strength to withstand the temptations of Satan. Adam,
he came to Adam and Adam just crumbled, but not the second
Adam. He withstood the the wickedness
of men, the force of their wickedness. He stood up under the wrath of
God. He stood up under the wrath of
God. He took the full cup of God's wrath. He drank it dry.
And you know, for him to die, he gave up the ghost. He said, into thy hands I commend
my spirit. No man takes my life from me. I lay it down of myself. I'm
going to do this. I'm going to die, and I'm going
to die on purpose. They killed him at Calvary. Well,
the scripture says they put him to death. There's a charge. There's
a charge against the human race. But he gave up his spirit. He
gave it up. He commended his spirit to the
hands of the Father. He's clothed with power. He only is able to bind the strong
man of the house. You hear these preachers, tell
Satan to get out of here. What an idiot. But I tell you what, when he
says come out, he comes out. When you read the gospels, you
don't ever hear of any demon, any devil that said, and when
the Lord said come out, and he said, no I'm not. This is my
house. No, this is my house. You're
coming out. When the strong man takes over the house, he kicks
out. When the stronger man takes over
the house, he kicks out that strong man. But the stronger
man comes in, which is Christ, and kicks him out. Clothed with power. It says in
Colossians 2.15, Having spoiled principalities and powers, he
made a show of them openly. You know, that's what the kings
used to do back in the old, back in that day. They would take
their subject that they captured and the kings that they would
capture and they would bring them behind them in chains, triumphing
over them. And they'd make an open display
of their triumph over their enemies. Our Lord has done that. He's
done that. And the world also established that it cannot be
moved. That means the world is, it cannot waver. It's not shaken. I mean, unless it will fall into
decay. He maintains it. He sent the
rain here lately, hasn't he? He knows when to send it. He
knows when to send it. He knows when to withhold it. Let's never overlook the daily
things that he does, even in weather. Don't overlook that
as his children. We do, but let's not do that.
But now listen, here's why he's saying the stability of the world
depends, listen, on the stability of the one who made it. That's
what it depends on. It doesn't mean you. It depends
on the stability of the one who made it. So listen, this is about
the one who made it, in Hebrews 1.12. And as a vesture shalt
thou fold them up, and they shall be changed. But thou art the
same, and thy years shall not fail. Jesus Christ the same yesterday,
today, and forever. That's stable, isn't it? You and I change like the weather,
but He changes not. He never changes. No one can
remove this world, for no one can remove Him who made it. You've
got to remove Him before you can remove the world. The stability
of the world ensures the fulfilling of His purpose. You know that?
Somebody said this, the great design of God is played out on
this earth, and we are a part of it. And so this earth shall
stand until He has fulfilled His purpose on this earth. and saved his people and made
them like his son. And he says in verse 2, Thy throne
is established of old, thou art from everlasting. His throne
is no new upstart. It didn't just happen 2,000 years
ago. It's an eternal throne. It's eternal throne. It's from
everlasting. And our Lord's reigning power
is seen, now listen, it's seen in providence, He makes all things
work together every day for our good. Every day. It's seen over
men, it's seen over Satan, it's seen over our hearts. The floods,
in verse 3, the floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted
up their voice, the floods lift up their way. We see His control
over nature. You realize how violent things
can be if they were out of control? I mean, we've not seen anything
yet what weather could really do if God turns it really loose. It was just unbelievable. It says in Mark 4, And he arose
and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Be still, be still. And the wind ceased, and there
was a great calm. Thank God for that. We see this
in the flood of Noah's day. He sent the great flood and then
he dried it up. Provided an ark for the saving
of eight souls there and an animal. You know all the animals we have
right now on this earth? All of them. Look at all that
we have on this earth. Look at it. It all came in the
ark. It was all in that ark. You look
at that ark and you say, how in the world? Can all of this
be in that little boat? Comparison-wise. You know, when those Pharisees
looked at Jesus Christ, they said, no way. This is not the
Savior. And one of these days, we're
going to stand in glory, and you're going to look at that
whole host of heaven. And you know, every one of them
was saved in Jesus Christ. They all came out of Him. That
man, that man, Jesus Christ. That's amazing. And we see His
control over Satan. He cast out those devils. He
said, come out. They came out. He controls men. The heart of
the king is in the hands of the Lord like rivers of water. He
turns it withers whoever He will. You think the king is just making
decisions? No. God's got his heart. His hand is right there.
He's going to do what the Lord wills to do, whether to bring
judgment on a country or to release it. And he says in verse 4, I'm going
to close this down. The Lord on high, the Lord Jesus
Christ on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yeah,
than the mighty waves of the sea. There's a lot of commotion
going on out there. All the commotion of men just
sounds like noise. It's just like the noise of many
waters. Well, He's greater than that.
He's greater than that. He's not moved. Listen, He's
not moved by that. You know, if all you were shouting
at me and just, you know, I'd be moved by that. I would, I'd
be disturbed. He's not. He's not disturbed
at all. He's at rest. You know, when
that boat was being tossed to and fro and the disciples were
bailing out water and they said, carest thou not that we perish,
they had to wake him up. He was asleep. But here, listen,
you don't want him to sleep. That's what perfect faith does.
See, he, Jesus Christ, had perfect faith. And he was able to sleep
in that storm. Now the reason you and I can't
go to sleep at night when we have trials and heartaches and
things like that, the reason why it keeps us up at night, we don't
have perfect faith. We can't lay down and say, this
is the Lord. It's the Lord. He can do as He will. It's the
Lord. It'll be alright. This is of God. And He could
do that. But you know what? That perfect
faith is our righteousness. It's our righteousness. He's mightier because He's the
mighty God. He's mightier because He's the
mighty mediator. He's God's right hand interceding
for us. He's mightier than the noise
of Satan. He's mightier than all. He's mightier than the war
that's going on in you. Isn't there a lot of noise going
on in you? A lot of trouble? He's mightier than that. He can
quiet it down. He can say, peace be still. And you can just have a good,
calm, restful day. Peace be. And thy testimonies
are very sure. You know what that means? Stable.
The Word of God is stable. All the promises of God in Christ
are yea and amen. It's stable. You and I may stumble
and stutter and fall and crawl around, but that rock doesn't
move. And His Word is stable. You can
keep crawling out of this. When you fall down, crawl back
on that rock. Thank God we never fall off the
rock. We may fall on it, but we never fall off of it. He doesn't
let us. He doesn't let us. His testimonies are sure. Holiness
become a thine house. God's Word is reliable. It's
beyond question. You can take Him at His Word.
Every promise will be fulfilled. And God's Word of grace never
leads us to sin. I'm going to close. Thy testimonies are very sure,
stable. Holiness becometh thine house,
O Lord, forever. God is holy. He demands holy
in His house, and He provides that holiness. God's house, now
listen, God's house is not a den of thieves. Now we might have
been a bunch of thieves. You know, Paul said, old wretched
man that I am, but he didn't live like a wretch. He knew he
was one, but he didn't live like one no more. Now what does all
this mean? What does all this mean to the
believer? Well, it means safety and security in an evil world.
You can go to sleep tonight, the Lord reigneth. He's watching
over your house, my house. The Lord reigneth. He watches
over our bodies. You know, I've learned this.
My body's His. My body's His. You know, when they talk about
abortion, that a woman ought to have the right to do what
she wants to, it's her body. No, it isn't. No, it isn't. It's the Lord's. God has given
us a body, every one of it. It's His. And as a believer, your body
is the temple of the Holy Spirit. That's why we take care of it.
That's why we take care of it. But it's safety and security
in an evil world. It ensures provision on our way
home. David said, I'm young. I was young. Now I'm old. I've
never seen the righteous forsaken nor received begging bread. And
it ensures final glory, the Lord reigneth. He said, Father, you've
given me power over all flesh that I should give eternal life
to as many as thou hast given me. I have power over everybody
for this purpose, that your elect, your children, shall be saved.
I have that power. All right.