Don't you just love this place? I can't imagine being without
it. Go to Matthew chapter 4 with
me. Matthew chapter 4. This is truly an oasis in the
wilderness. And I say with David this morning,
as we read in Psalm 45, my heart is indicting a good matter. I speak of the things which God
hath made, thus touching the King. That is our subject this
morning. He is our subject, King of kings,
King of glory, the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ, who came to this
earth to receive a kingdom for himself. As we said Wednesday night, the
gospel of Matthew could be called the gospel of the kingdom. It
says in verse 23 that Christ came preaching the gospel of
the kingdom, the good news about the king and his kingdom. Because
this gospel is all about the king who came and the kingdom
he established. And in chapters one and two is
the genealogy of the king, his family tree, his bloodlines,
his birth. Chapter three is the first public
appearance of the king. as a young man, that is, and
in that chapter, you remember, he's declared by God from heaven
to be who he is and by the Holy Spirit. He's anointed. He's crowned
king. Stay with me. And then chapter 4 begins with
the king and his confrontation with a usurper. A fellow who's
called the prince, a ruler, a minor one, but a fellow who's called
the prince of darkness, God of this world. And our king, great
king, does battle with him because this prince holds the king's
subjects captive and he's got to liberate them. He's got to. This is true. This is true. This
is not medieval romanticism. This is true. And Immanuel is
his name, our great king, God with us. And the latter part
of this chapter, which we're going to deal with this morning,
is about the king coming and calling his subjects. He calls
his subject. All right, look at verse 12 with
me. Now, when Jesus had heard that
John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee. He goes back into Galilee. That's
where he came from, Nazareth being from
there. And he came, you remember, to
Jordan to be baptized of John, and now he goes back to Galilee. Verse 13. Now, the Lord is not
wandering aimlessly. Not at all. But everything he
does is on purpose. Every move he makes is on purpose. And I think about the time that
he got in a boat. He told his disciples, get in
the boat. We've got to go. We've got to cross over. And
they went. They got in the boat. They didn't
know where he was going. They never did know where he
was going. He did. It was ordained by God before
he came to this planet, every move he would make, every step
he would take in every direction. And he said, Let's get in the
boat. We've got to cross over to the other side. And they didn't
ask him why. He might tell them. He might
not. That's a good picture, isn't it? We don't know the Lord's
will and everything, but we follow it. Well, they got in that boat
and went over to the land of the Gadarenes, it says. And he
went to a cemetery. Because there's a fellow he needs
to meet. He's bound and chained, a demoniac, a lunatic. And he promptly saves that man
and he says, get in the boat, we're going back. My job is finished. So the Lord went to Jordan to
be baptized, came back to Galilee, and then it says in verses 13
through 15, It says, "...he left Nazareth,
and he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast,
in the borders of Zebulun and Nephilim, that it might be fulfilled
which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, The land of
Zebulun and the land of Nephilim, by the way of the sea, beyond
Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, The people which sat in darkness
saw great light, and to them which sat in the region and shadow
of death, light is sprung up." Now it says he left Nazareth
and dwelt in Capernaum and in the borders of Zebulun and Nathulim.
That is, he came there and he stayed there awhile. He dwelled
there. He lived there. for at least a few days. Now
what this is, is the great king walking through his land. He's not wandering aimlessly,
as I said, but purposefully. He is seeking out his subjects.
Now, the Scripture says that everything the Lord did and said
was written in books. Can you see me here? I'm sitting
low. You don't need to see me, just
listen. Scripture says if everything the Lord did and said was written
in a book, the world couldn't contain it. Think about it. This
is the eternal God of heaven. Every word he spoke was eternally
purposed and of infinite value and worth and effectual for something. Every word. Every step he took.
was in the direction of fulfilling God's will, the saving of God's
people and fulfilling of God's law and so forth. No telling
what he did between the lines that are written. But I know this, what he was
doing was on purpose and he was seeking out his subject. This
is the king walking through his land seeking out his subject,
making up his kingdom. That's what we're talking about.
And he would dwell in these places. You wouldn't even know what Capernaum
was or Nephilim or any of these places unless it had been written
about them that the Lord was there. Would you? That place is of no significance
to you, is it? Nazareth. That's what, who was
it, Philip? That said, can anything good
come out of Nazareth? Oh, yeah. What about Rocky Mount? What an insignificant little
place. And I love this place. This is my hometown. It really
is. I think I've been here long enough
to be called a Virginian now, haven't I? I hope so. I feel
like one. But I love this community. There's
no place I'd rather live. I'm not belittling Franklin County.
Not at all. I love this community. But really,
what is this town? What is this place? A little
bitty one-horse town, isn't it? Well, it's a place where the
king chose to dwell. That's what puts it on the map.
The king came and dwelt. What great mercy and grace and
condescension that the king would come and dwell in this little
town. Scripture says that about him over in Proverbs 8. It says,
His delights were with the sons of men. He rejoiced in the habitable
parts of the earth. That is, God became a man, inhabited
a body and became a man, and his delights were to dwell with
the sons of men." Who? Kings? Rulers? Famous? Rich and famous? High and mighty? No, that's not
who he made his subjects. That's not who his companions
were, thank God. Oh, not many wise men, not many
noble or called. Well, but many nobodies and nothings
and unwise and unnoble are called men. And that's who he dwells
with. He came to this earth to dwell
with the sons of men. My, my, what condescension. I
remember as a boy, let's see, 1970, I had been 15 years old. 1970, I remember Richard Nixon. I came into Ashland, Kentucky. He came through Ashland, Kentucky.
And do you remember Donna? I think that was a year. But
he came over to Paul G. Blazer High School and spoke.
And I remember it well. I was, let's see, 15. I wasn't
driving yet. I was on my bicycle. And I remember
standing or riding my bike up to where I knew the motorcade
would pass by. out there on the corner of the
street. There he came, the big motorcade. Out there he was in
the back seat, waved at me. I thought he did. Now you think
Richard Nixon, he was famous then, infamous now. But at any
rate, that great man then really condescended to come to Little
Old Washington, Kentucky. and speak in our little high
school over there. I'll never forget that. Well, it's far greater,
far greater condescension that God came to this earth and dwells
in certain places, places like this. It says, "...the people
that sat in darkness have seen a great light." A great light. What about us, huh? The land
of Rocky Mount, people that sat in darkness. Everyone in here,
before the gospel, before you heard the gospel, before the
gospel came, you sat in darkness. You may have been in religion.
Oh, if the light that is in you be darkness, how great is that
darkness. If your religion is not truth, it's double darkness. And the people that sat in darkness
have seen a great light. The light has shone. to them
which sat in the region of the shadow of death, lights from
the sun of righteousness arose, were appealing in his way. And
you beheld his glory, the land of Rocky Mountain, my, my." And
he continues to dwell here, thank God. He continues. As I warned this
morning, and I beg us all to not take this for granted, because
he Not going to stay here forever. No, sir. Well, Christ the King
came preaching in these parts. That's what He came doing. Look
at it. Verse 17, He came preaching. From that time, Jesus began to
preach. He came to preach. Now, you know
how I feel about preachers. I make fun of them all the time. I think they're the worst creatures
on earth, even worse than lawyers. I mean that. But now, what great honor and approval
God Almighty placed on this thing of preaching and the office of
a preacher by making His Son a preacher. You've heard this
said Before, God had one son. He came to this earth, God had
one son. What was his occupation? Preacher. So, in spite of how men have
degraded this office, God has put great approval on it, hasn't
He? God has sanctioned it. given great honor to it. Christ
said to his disciples later on, he said, let us go into these
other towns. Let us go into the next town
that I may preach there also for, therefore came I forth. He said, I came to preach. Preaching, preaching is just simply the
public declaration of God's truth. That's what preaching is. That's
exactly what preaching is, nothing more, nothing less. The public
declaration or heralding of God's Word, God's truth, anything added
to that, anything in addition to that, is not, that's not what
a preacher is to do. He's a herald of the truth, preacher. Well, our Lord began to preach
or publicly declare the word of God. What did he preach? What
did he say? Look here. This is the first
recorded words of our Lord as a preacher. It says, he said,
he preached, repent for the kingdom of heaven. is
at hand repent. Now. Repent has always been the first
word of God to man. The first word of God Almighty
to mankind has always been repent. Not I love you. and I have a
wonderful plan for your life. And I sent my... No, sir. But
repent." That's always been the message
of the prophets, right? Repent. The apostles... John,
you remember, was the last of the Old Testament prophets. He
came preaching repent. The kingdom of heaven is in him. And the message of the Lord himself
was first and principally, repent. And it's still the need today.
And I don't mean for the world at large, I mean for us. I mean for us. This message right
now, this morning is for us. There's nobody, we're the ones
that's hearing this. Repent. Why? For the kingdom
of heaven is at hand. That's what our Lord came preaching.
Kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent. What does repent mean? Well, basically, what repent
means is to be profoundly, I mean deeply, sincerely sorry for what
we are. Repent means to be profoundly
and sincerely sorry for what we've done. Repent means to be profoundly
and sincerely sorry for what we have not done. And in Acts 20, 21, Paul was
telling the people at Ephesus, he said, I did not shun to declare
anything. to you, but fully preach the
whole counsel of God. Repentance. He said always preaching
repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
Repentance is toward God. Now listen. As I said, it means to be profoundly
sorry, sincerely. I mean, it means you truly are
sincerely sorry toward God for what we are. David wrote in his Psalm 51, you know so
well, David, when God Almighty sent a preacher to him and convicted
him of his sin and sins, David said, against thee and thee only. Have I sinned and done this evil
in thy sight, right in front of your eyes? I have done this
in absolute willful rebellion, and it's against you. No matter
who else it affects, I've done this to you. And you will be
clear, he said, you will be justified when you speak to me, and you
will be clear when you judge me. Repentance is toward God because
it's against God that we sin. Repentance is to be profoundly
and sincerely sorry for what we are. What is that? Rebels. Unthankful. And what we have done, sinned
against God, brought great reproach upon our God. And what we have not done, we
have not glorified Him. That's His just and reasonable
due, is it not? All that He does for us, all
that He's done for us, what all He's blessed us with, and yet
for us to willfully rebel and sin against Him, we've come far
short of bringing Him the glory that He's due. It's against God. I've told you this before, but
over in Great Britain, every single violation of the law in Great
Britain is called this. No matter what it is, if it's
jaywalking or if it's murder, it is listed under this, a breach
of the Queen's peace. A breach of the Queen's peace.
In other words, whatever you do that goes against what the
queen or king, if there's a king in office, whatever you do that
goes against that, you are disturbing the peace. You're causing trouble. That's what that means, causing
trouble. Whatever we do, the sin is called
the transgression of the law. Whose law? God's law. And it's
against God. God has ordained peace. And it's a breach of the king's
peace. Scriptures, you heard me talk
about this Wednesday, that scriptures talks about trespassing. Forgive
us our trespasses. Have you ever trespassed? It's
a good meaning to the word, a good way
to remember. Trespass. What does that mean?
It means you're somewhere where you don't belong. It means you're
treading on someone else's property. You're an intruder. You're doing
what you're not supposed to do in a place where you're not supposed
to be. Right? What would you do? Let me ask you, let me just ask
you this. What would you do if you went
out this morning and there was a tent in your front yard? And somebody had got your, say
you had some cattle and they slew one of those cattle. And
they were having a little big barbecue. And they were just freely taking
everything that belonged to you and just set up residence right
there and never asked you permission. What would you do? I know most
of you, if somebody came to your door and said, I need a place
to stay, could you mind if I stay out here and I'm hungry? I know
you'd give it to them, wouldn't you? As much as you could. What
if they didn't? What if they just came and just
Just pitch a tent and just got whatever belonged to you and
just started using it and never gave you a thought. Never asked
you permission. That's exactly what mankind does. Look at that. Trespassing. What if they never gave you thanks? That's exactly what man does.
That's the reason our Lord said, this is why our Lord said, pray
this way. You pray this way. Don't be a
trespasser. Pray this way. Our Father, give
us this day our daily bread. It belongs to you and we have
some of it. And I know Him. He'll let whoever
wants to come and live there and have whatever they wish.
Repent. And the worst thing of all, the
worst thing of all is that God sent His Son to this earth to
do what He did, that so great a work of salvation. God sent
His Son, and for years we didn't believe Him, didn't care, could
care less. Scripture says, Is it nothing
to you, all you that pass by, whereby the Lord hath afflicted No, it's not. It's nothing but
sons of men that care less who Jesus Christ is, and so did we. And so, he says, now this is going to build up, and
I'm going to stand up again to tell you. He says, cease from
this act of rebellion. Listen to me, young people, everybody.
He says, repent Be profoundly sorrowed, ask for mercy of the
king, because the kingdom of heaven
is at hand. Turn, he says. Why will you die? Cease from this act of rebellion. How could you be so foolish?
How could you go another day in absolute rebellion? And he
says, repent, which also means sue for mercy, plea for mercy. He's a merciful king. I hear
that the kings of Israel are merciful kings. That's what those
pagan fellows said. I hear they're merciful kings.
You remember that? And so they said, here's what
we'll do. We'll go to the king of Israel with ropes around our
necks. We won't just storm in there
and demand what belongs to us. We won't go in there and tell
him how we've decided to let him show us amnesty. No, we'll
put ropes around our neck as signs that we're guilty and need
to be hung. Guilty is charged, and what we
deserve is to be hung, but we're asking for mercy. That's what
we'll do. And everyone that went to the
king with ropes around their neck was spared. Our Lord says, cease from this
course of rebellion against the king who owns you, because he's
here. The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
God says, Am I not a God at hand? His eyes behold, his eyelids
try, the sons of men. Huh? The light and the dark are
alike to God. The kingdom of heaven is here.
He's gathering his subjects. The king is gathering his subjects.
How he does it is with this gospel right now. This is how the king
gets his subjects. This is how he apprehends his
subjects. This is the arrow in which he
pierces the hearts of his obstinate, rebellious subjects. This is
how he delivers them from chains of darkness. This is how he takes
them out of prison, these prisoners of hope. He says, Repent, for the kingdom
of heaven is at hand, the kingdoms of this earth. Oh, they look
great, don't they? They appeal to us worms. All
these little sandcastles appeal to us, don't they? What great
kingdoms are the kingdoms of this world? Ask some of them Who were members
of those kingdoms? Kings of Persia, Rome, and so
forth. Where are they now? Under the
sand, buried. What about the mighty United
States? The greatest kingdom in history, perhaps. It's about to end. It really
is. The kingdoms of this earth are
soon to be destroyed. Our Lord said that. The disciples
themselves were enamored with the temple, weren't they? They were enamored with the lifestyle
of the rich and famous. And they said, Look at this,
Lord, isn't this wonderful? He said, There won't be one stone
left standing on another. The kingdom of heaven, though,
is an everlasting kingdom. And the king who rules there
and reigns there of his dominion, there's no end. And he's making
up his subject right now. Today is the day of salvation. This is not a fair day. This
is true. And the king walked this earth. And he walked among his subjects.
Scripture says light shone in darkness. But darkness comprehended
it not. The sun was here. The sun arose
with healing in his wings. But, you know, we can't look
on the sun directly, can we? Huh? Try it. No, don't try it. We can't even look at the natural
sun. God dwells in light which no man can approach unto. He
had to veil himself in humanity, didn't he? Nobody could really
look upon him. He was veiled. Light shone in
darkness, but darkness comprehended it not. Why? Men were lovers
of darkness rather than light, the scripture says. And he came
to his own. What does that mean? It means
he owns everybody. He said, All souls are mine,
God said. and not your own, and his own
receives him not." Can you imagine me going, coming home one day
and my dog biting me? Or my dog has torn up the plate. What would I do? What should
I do? What would you do? He came to his own when his own
received him not. He bit the hand of it. All right. I'm doing the best
I can. This is the best subject you
could ever hear. This is the most needful thing. Maybe I need
to stand up. And you need to stand up. And we were in darkness even
as others. We were rebels. Ephesians 2 talks about that,
doesn't it? We were children of wrath even as others, subjects
of the plants of darkness even as others, weren't we? Rebels
against the king even as others. This is when I talked about repenting,
when I preach repentance. You remember when our Lord said,
I said, it's not for people out there, nobody else is hearing
it. You remember when our Lord said to his disciples, except
you repent, you'll likewise perish. You remember that? They said,
the world's going to get what it deserves. He said, except
you repent. Repentance is a daily thing.
We come in here every time, not only to worship God, but to repent
of our sins. We forget, we despise the riches
of His goodness. When we take for granted God's
mercy and grace and goodness and so forth and go on as we
please, what we're doing is despising the riches of His goodness and
forbearance and longsuffering. We need to take into account
it's the longsuffering of our Lord that is salvation. Longsuffering
with us, He's longsuffering to us. It's going to come a time when
he's not going to put up with the world anymore, but our salvation
is him putting up with that, continuing to put up with that.
Long-suffering of the Lord is forbearance, not knowing that
it's the goodness of God, not remembering, not considering.
It's the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. If God
would leave us alone right now, sir, right now, we'd be out of
here so fast. We'd never come here again. We'd
find a reason not to come here again. We'd cause trouble, we'd
stir this place, we'd split this church wide open, we'd throw
our Bibles away, we'd bring infinite reproach on God, and we'd die
without hope and without God. That's why I say this thing of
repentance, who's it for? Me, starting with me. You know, it takes sovereign
power. It takes sovereign power to break an obstinate and hard
heart. Sovereign power. Only thing it'll
do. It takes sovereign power to convince of sin. I mean really
convince to such a degree that just breaks the heart over sin.
Oh, you can be convinced in your head, but that's not repentance
that needeth not repenting of. That's not godly sorrow under
a true repentance. And this power, this gospel,
this power is the gospel. The gospel of God's sovereign,
electing, calling, redeeming, saving grace. And that's what
I'm going to do right now. Now listen, this king, this king,
king of kings, lord of lords, didn't come to try to make anybody
one of his subjects. He didn't come to try and build
a kingdom. He didn't come to take candidates
for his kingdom. try to get some subjects and
hand out flyers and advertise. But he came to take what was
his. Now I like this, I'm on my favorite
subject now. He came to take what was rightfully
his. He came to get what he paid for. Now look at it, Luke 19, this
is, you've seen this with me before. But it says in Luke 19,
verse 11 and 12, Our Lord, as he heard these things, he added
and spake a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and
because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately
appear. He said, therefore, a certain
noble man went into a far country, that is, a place far from his
home, to receive for himself a kingdom And in return, this
certain noble man, would you know who this certain noble man
is who left his place and came to a far country to receive for
himself a kingdom? That is, take what belonged to
him and then to go back where he came from? It's none other
than the king of kings, the noble man, the Lord Jesus Christ, who
came to receive for himself a kingdom and return. All right, look down
at verse thirteen, and it says, He called his ten servants. He
called some servants and delivered them ten pounds and said unto
them, Occupy till I come. He designated authority, he made
under shepherds to himself, rulers in his land. He said, now you
occupy till I come. You govern, you rule. And the
people were to remember those that had the rule over them as
being in the charge of the noble man. And they were to rule well. He
that ruleth among men must be just, Scripture said, David said.
And he gave them money to do so with, grace to do so with. He said, Occupy until I come. Well, now look at this, verse
14. But his citizens hated him. They hated him. And they said, they sent a message
after him saying, We will not have this man to reign over us. We're not going to let him reign
here. We don't like this man. We don't
want his rule. And we will not. We will not. We have our free will, and I
don't care who he is. We will not have him reign over
us. Now what did this man do to incite
such rebellion? Does it say that he was a cruel
tyrant? Does it say that he lorded himself
over them in such a way that he beat them? No. Well, then why are they acting
this way? Because that's what they are by nature. Scripture says the carnal mind
is enmity against God. The natural man receiveth not
the things of God. The natural man, the fool, hath
said no to everything. What are your children? One of
the first things they learn when they come out of the womb is
no, isn't it? Obstinance, rebellion. And it
gets stronger and stronger. And unless God Almighty breaks
that obstinate will, they will break your heart. And they'll
split hell wide open. Unless God, in His power, overrules
them and turns that no, no. And we will not have this you
to rule over. Unless God Almighty, there's
only one thing that will do it. If God, in infinite mercy and
grace, comes and condescends to show
them mercy, and reveal themselves to them, and break their proud,
hard heart, and cause them to repent toward God, and beg Him
for forgiveness, and look to Christ their only hope? Unless
God does that, we're going to split hell wide open. We will not have this man. So, then he's not going to get a
kingdom. Look at the next verse. Well,
it came to pass that when he was returned, having received
the kingdom, he commanded his servants and went on. Did you catch that? He came,
a certain noble man came to receive a kingdom unto himself and to
return. It says he sent his men to occupy
and the people said, we will not have you reign over us. And
then the next verse says, well, he He received the kingdom. He did. He made some subjects. He made them subjects. Thy people
shall be willing in the day of thy power. The king's arrows
are sharp. in the hearts of the people,
whereby the people fall under him. We read, Psalm 45. Old Brother Marvin preached,
he makes his enemies his footstool. Thank God he does break. Thank
the hard heart. Thank God he does overrule our
sovereign, or seemingly sovereign, obstinate will. And he does this
by the gospel. Look at verse 27 of this same
chapter. It says, in the end, he says,
those mine enemies which would not that I should reign over
them, the ones that said you will not reign over me, bring
them to me. Bring them to me and slay them. You know, that can be, you can
look at that two ways, can't you? You can look at that two
ways. God is going to laugh. Proverbs
1 says he will laugh at the calamity of his inmates someday. They
will call on me, he said, when they're getting in enough trouble,
they're going to call on me, he said, that I want to laugh. They laughed at Christ, didn't
they, when we, we laughed at Christ, didn't we, when we hung
him on the cross, didn't we? Mocked and scoffed and jeered
and laughed at him. I scoffed at religion. I literally
laughed at it. I thought my dad was an old fool,
literally. I told one of my friends that. And God has the last laugh, that's
for sure. And he says, Bring them now.
He has them before him. He says, Now you will not. You
didn't let me be your king, huh? He didn't let me rule over them. You didn't let me. Kill them. Kill them all. Get
them out of my sight. I won't ever see them again. Now bring my people here. You know, he did the same thing
to them though. And he slew them in a different way. He slew them
in a different way. He slays his enemies with the
gospel. Paul said, when the commandment
came, I died. I wish God would kill somebody
in here this morning. Kill them! Until they just die. And
say, Lord, I'm dead. I'm without hope. I'm without
God. I'm without Christ. I'm without strength. And without
goodness, help me, save me, Lord, or I'll perish." God alone must do that with his
sword, his sledge. It's a double-edged sword. It's
a two-edged sword. By one edge he slays, the other
edge he heals. He wounds and heals. He cuts
down because he's abased and he exalts. with the same sword
with which the king lops off the head, dubs the head, a knife,
a print. My, my. My, my. Look at it real quickly. 2 Samuel,
and I'll close. 2 Samuel, and I'm not going to
completely close. I'm going to get back to our
text. I want you to see this and mark it well, because I've
quoted it to you before, but I want you to see this. 2 Samuel
5. I love this. I love this. 2 Samuel 5. David, who is perhaps the greatest
type of Christ in all of Scripture. David, whom Christ names himself
after, the son of David. David, look at verse four in
chapter five of 2 Samuel, says, David was thirty years old when
he began to reign. Anybody with me? What are we talking about now?
We're talking about the king, Christ the king. How old was
he when he walked up to Jordan's banks? Thirty years old. What's
he doing? He's coming to receive a kingdom. All right, he says he reigned
over Judah seven years, six months, Jerusalem thirty-three years.
Thirty-three years he reigned over Jerusalem. How long did
our Lord live? Thirty-three years. Well, it
says the king and his men, verse six, went to Jerusalem unto the
Jebusites. See, there were some usurpers,
there were some squatters there. There were some people living
there, Jebusites. This is now when the king has
come. He's come to take what is his.
Jerusalem is the throne of David. And he's come to take it. Well,
there's some people sitting there. There's some people in there
that have enthroned themselves. Jebusites is what they're called,
inhabitants of the land. And they said this to David,
verse 6, which spake unto David, saying, now remember, Jerusalem
is a walled city. Remember that? It's a walled
city. surrounded by walls and they're saying this over the
wall, over top of the wall. David and his men have come to
take what's there, to receive his kingdom. And these men that
are in there say this over the wall. Look at it. They said,
except you take away the blind and the lame, you shall not come
in hither, thinking David can't come in here. Now the blind and
the lame, what's that? That's their gods. They had gods
or idols. Psalm 115 talks about the idols
of the people are blind lame. The people are just like them.
They that make them are like unto them. Blind lame. Their
gods can't see anything, can't do anything, can't help anybody,
but they have their gods that's protecting them. In other words,
they put all these idols across the walls there that was protecting
them from evil spirits and so forth. You know every one of
us in here. It was it was in religion before
we're out of worshipers we didn't know the living and true God
we didn't know his Christ we had a Jesus. Of our own making them. Who we
thought protected us from evil. And they said and we might have
heard of the king of kings. Chances are you heard at some
point the gospel of God's sovereign power and grace and you scoffed
at it. I don't believe that. Anybody? Yeah. Darnell, I know you did. I know some of you did. You heard
about this. Hey, there's a king who takes
what he will. There's a king, God's king, who
just comes And he does what he will with whom he will, because
he will. He doesn't ask anybody anything. He can't be king unless I let
him. Look at it. I love this. David can't come
in here, verse 7. Nevertheless, David took the
stronghold of Zion, the same as the city of David. If he can't
come in here, he did. Immediately he did. I love the story of, and go back
to our text in Matthew 4. If you've never read the, and
I don't have anything new to tell you. All my illustrations
and everything are the same. But I don't care. I still enjoy
telling them. But Bunyan's book, The Holy War,
if you've never read it, you've heard me allude to it. But in
that book, the book is a story of the conquest of the town of
Mansoul. It's an allegory about God's
great salvation. This town of Mansoul owned by
the great ruler over all, the great king who owns it all, This devilish fellow talks the
people into letting him in, and he sets up his reign and his
rule in the palace in the middle of that town, and he's a cruel
tyrant, and the people are in captivity to him. And how Diabolus
got in the town? There are two gates, the ear
gate and the eye gate. And how he got in was he came
up and talked to him. He was a beautiful fellow to
look at. The eye gate, they looked at him, beheld him. The ear gate,
he was a smooth-tongued fellow. And they just opened up to him.
Come on in. He mean us well, just like Eve
in the garden. Well, what he did, promptly did,
when he got in was enchain the people, enslave the people. And
their consciences, a man named Recorder, conscience, he shut
him up, put him in a dark place so that he couldn't hound the
people anymore, couldn't bother them anymore. And he bound the eye gate and
the ear gate fast where they couldn't open it. But the great king, who owns
the town. Purpose to have it. And there's
only one person that can take it. His son. His glorious son. The king's
son. His name is Emmanuel. Prince. Charming. And the great king
sends Emmanuel to take this town. Well, he comes to the town. Come to the eye gate. They didn't
open it because they saw no beauty in him that they should desire. He comes to the ear gate and
he speaks. But they heard nothing. Nothing
to woo them. So what does he do? He breaks down that gate. He
breaks down that gate. Forcefully comes in and takes
what's his. takes what's his. Well, here
in Matthew 4, look at it in closing, it says that the king came calling
his subject. Verse 18 through 22, Jesus walking,
Jesus, that's the king of kings and Lord of lords, the king who's
come. calling his subject, walking
by the sea of Galilee, and he saw two brethren, Simon called
Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for
they were fishers. And he saith unto them, Follow
me, and I will make you fishers of men." What happened? He didn't ask them anything.
He commanded them, follow me. And they straightway left their
nets and followed him. Going on from thence, he saw
two other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, John his
brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets.
And he called them, and they immediately, immediately left
the ship and their father and followed him. Where the word
of a king is, Scripture says, King comes calling his subject,
and he came and he called, and he conquered, and they followed. And they immediately left everything
to follow him. How long? From then on, from
then on. And only of this great King,
the Lord Jesus Christ, can that be said. I think it was Caesar
who said that one time, that only of Christ can it truly be
said. He came, he saw, and he conquered. He came to where his people were,
every one of them, were exactly where he puts them, like Zacchaeus
up a tree. He saw, he looked on him. You're one of mine. I came to
call you. Is that the way it happened to
you? I pray that it's so. All right, Brother Gabe, come
and lead us in a closing hymn.