And on chapter number 10, the
shepherd and the sheep. Well, if you would get your Bibles
and go back to that Psalm that Ron read to us, Psalm 97. Psalm 97. And I want to draw your attention
to two verses this morning as we Seek to honor God, we seek to
worship Him. That's our reason for being here.
In fact, this first reason for doing everything is the glory
and the honor of God. Whether you eat, whether you
drink, whatever you do. You do it in the name of the
Lord Jesus, and you do it for the glory of God. And this is
our first reason for meeting this morning, is to worship and
magnify our God. The Lord says in John chapter
4, the Father seeks true worshipers. and those who truly worship Him,
worship in spirit and in truth. And that's what I want to do
this morning, and I hope that's what you want to do. I know that's
what you want to do, is to worship God in spirit and in truth. And we will do that as we begin
to understand the majesty and the glory and the wonders of
our God, understanding something of his greatness, of his exaltation,
of that one who entered into this world and gave his life
in order to redeem his people and as a reward for fully performing
the redemptive will of the Father, Christ Jesus has been exalted,
and he reigns over all things. He's always reigned as that one
who is the Son of God, because he has eternally been with the
Father and with the Spirit, and being God himself, he's always
reigned over all, but he came down to this earth. And He did
so in order to redeem a people, in order to save us. And this
is the one who is rightfully called the Savior of sinners.
And He saved sinners by His substitutionary death upon the cross of Calvary.
Justice demanded death for sins, and so our Lord Jesus died upon
the cross. He died for our sins, according
to the Scriptures. He was buried and He rose again
the third day. according to the scriptures.
And then 40 days later, he ascended back to glory and God exalted
him. God gave him universal authority. And he reigns. And we gather
to honor that one who reigns over all. We gather, first of
all, to honor him in our own individual hearts. Do you honor
God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you exalt Him? Do you admire
Him? Do you glory in Him, in your
innermost being? Oh, that He would fill us with
the knowledge of His majesty and His greatness and His glory,
so that we would this morning, by faith, see Him as that One
who is God over all, blessed forever. He is Himself the everlasting
God. He's the God who made you. He's
the God who provides for you. He's the God who, if you are
converted, if you are saved, He's the one who saved you. He
redeemed you. He justified you. And you stand
accepted before God in His righteousness. Now it should be, and I know
it is indeed your desire to honor Him and exalt Him and magnify
Him and glorify Him today. That's why we come together,
to worship Him. And then we come together that
we might be helped, that we might be blessed, that the Lord would
speak to us. And I'll tell you this, the greatest
blessing that God could give to you this morning, the greatest
blessing that God could give to me this morning is to give
us some kind of sense and understanding, a grasp of the glory of Christ
Jesus. We're blessed as we view Him.
We're blessed as we look at him in the word of God, as we see
him magnified and exalted, as we see him as that one to whom
God gave all power and all authority over all things. He said himself
in John chapter 17 in his high priestly prayer, as thou has
given him power over all things that he should give eternal life
to as many as the father has given him. That's the savior
I want us to see. And we're blessed as we see him. We're helped as we view him.
It will do us good as we rejoice in and as we're totally taken
up with the Lord of glory. I can think of nothing better
for you and nothing better for me than for God to fill us with
adoration and confidence in his only begotten son. They're wonderful
things. Look here in Psalm 97, I draw
your attention to the first two verses. It begins this way. The Lord reigneth, Jehovah reigneth. He always has and he always will. He reigns, therefore let the
earth rejoice. Let the multitude of Isles be
glad thereof. And then he talks about that
which encircles God, which encompasses God. He says clouds and darkness
surround about him. He's mysterious in who he is
and the way he conducts all of his business. And then he says
this righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne. You think about the throne of
God, you think about the king. You think about the throne of
God, you think about his rule. You think about the throne of
God, you think about his kingdom, his kingdom. Well, His throne
has a foundation. It has a habitation. The word
habitation means foundation. It stands upon very sure ground. It stands upon the foundation
of righteousness and judgment. That is, God's very foundation
stands upon the fact that everything He does is right and everything
He does is just. God cannot act otherwise than
to be right in all that He does. And in everything that He does,
His throne stands upon this ground. He does it in judgment or justice. God can never deviate from justice. He can never deviate. He can
never go astray from that which is right. Righteousness and justice
or judgment, that's the very foundation of the throne of God. Go back and look at the first
phrase in verse one. The Lord reigneth. Boy, that's
a theme in this portion of the Psalms. Look over at Psalm 93
in verse one. The psalmist says, the Lord reigneth. Once again, Lord in all capitals. Jehovah reigneth. This is the
Son of God. This is God, our Savior. The Lord reigneth. He is clothed
with majesty. The Lord is clothed with strength. wherewith he hath girded himself. The world also is established
or established that it cannot be moved. The reason it cannot
be moved is because the Lord who reigns over all things has
established it. Look again in Psalm 96 in verse
10. Psalm 96 in verse 10, he says,
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. Psalm says, don't be hesitant
to say among the heathen that the Lord reigns. Say it out. That word, S-A-Y, that word say,
means to say it with conviction. Speak it out loudly. Avow this. Speak with authority. Speak with
a purpose. The Lord reigns. Even tell that
to the heathen. Well, who are the heathen? Well,
to the Jews, all the Gentiles were heathen. But as we consider
the word of God in all of it, in the usage of the word heathen,
it's those who don't believe God. It's those who don't love
the gospel. It's those who don't know who
God is. And if there's one thing people
don't know about, if there's one thing people are ignorant
of, it is the identity of God. It's the glory of God and the
greatness of God. And so here's what the psalmist
says, say among the heathen, shout it out. Say it with conviction. Said with firmness. Don't be
timid about it. Don't be shy about it. They don't
know who God is. Tell them. Tell them that the
Lord reigns. Said with conviction. Said with
fervor. Said with meaning. They don't
know who God is. This is the Lord's charge against
Israel. He said, you thought that I was
such in one as yourself. You don't know who I am. You
don't know who you're dealing with. And this is the issue today. Here's the problem today. Men
and women and boys and girls have no idea of the greatness
and the majesty and the glory and the power and the authority
of God. They're ignorant of God. It's
our business. It is our opportunity. It is
our privilege. And it is our responsibility
to tell them. Let's say to the heathen. to
those who don't know God, to those who have no concept of
His greatness. Let's say to them with conviction,
as people who mean this, people who love this truth, the Lord
reigneth. The Lord reigneth. Now to the
people of God, this is a joyful thing. We love to hear that the
Lord reigns. That he governs all things in
creation. After all, he made all things
according to his pleasure. He governs, he reigns in divine
providence. He's directing all things to
the end that he himself has predestinated. To tell the children of God,
the Lord reigns in the midst of these heavy trials of life. It helps them. It helps us to
reflect upon the fact that our Lord, our Savior, our Redeemer
governs in every situation. That helps the people of God.
We rejoice in that. You tell me He doesn't reign? You tell me there's something
He doesn't have control over? Well, that puts me in the midst
of gloominess. You tell me Satan has power over
God? You tell me that man's will can
checkmate God's will? Well, that doesn't do me any
good at all. That just puts me in the midst of a depression. But to remind me that my Lord
reigns, Overall, at all times, in every situation, in creation
and in providence, that He is exercising His sovereign will,
that there's nothing in heaven, earth, or hell that He doesn't
have absolute authority of, tell me that, I can rejoice in this
God. I can rejoice in this Savior.
And if I'm in the hospital, if I've had a problem, if I'm sick,
if I have a disease, if I've got a loved one who's dying,
if I go to a funeral of a loved one who's passed away, whatever
the situation may be, this gives me joy and happiness. The Lord
reigneth. That's a wonderful thing. No matter what happens, no matter
how much Sorrow or pain it may bring you or me. We rejoice in
this. Our Savior reigns. He redeemed us with his blood. Before he ever made anything,
he committed himself to be our Savior. He's loved us with an
everlasting love. and He governs the world. He has universal authority over
all things to bring everything to the end
that He Himself has appointed. He reigns. The Lord reigns. The
people of God are joyful. But there's a people who don't
understand that He reigns. They don't know He reigns. They've
listened to too many preachers that tell them to virtually feel
sorry for God. That's the kind of preachers
they've been listening to. That's the message they've been
listening to. God's kind of in check, mate, unless you let Him
do what He wants to do. You need to tell them that's
wrong. Our God sits on no precarious
throne. His throne has stability. It
is established. It's founded. It's founded upon
righteousness and judgment. And His throne lasts forever.
Nothing can shake God's throne. Nothing can frustrate Him. When
God made all things, He made them according to His pleasure.
There wasn't anybody there to coerce Him, to force Him, to
ask Him to do this, that, or something else. No, nobody existed
but God. He reigns in creation, and He
reigns in divine providence. He's directing every single thing
in the universe to the end that He Himself has predestinated.
That's the God of the Bible. He works in every situation amongst
all the peoples of the earth, fulfilling His will. He reigns. There's a verse of
scripture. Go over to, hold your place here
and go to Isaiah chapter 52. Let me show you what Isaiah says. about the servants of God, Isaiah
chapter 52, and look at verse seven. He says, how beautiful upon the
mountains are the feet of a hymn that bringeth good tidings, that
publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth
salvation, that saith unto Zion, and you who constitute Zion,
you who are the people of God, I want to publish this message
to you this morning. Thy God reigneth. That help you? That help you? Thy God reigneth. Therefore he says in verse eight,
thy watchman shall lift up the voice. With the voice together
shall they sing. For they shall see eye to eye
when the Lord shall bring again Zion. All of God's preachers
see eye to eye on the gospel. There may be some minor issues
that they don't see eye to eye on, but they all agree on how
God saves sinners. They all agree on God's identity. They all agree on God's greatness
and all of God's attributes. They all agree that salvation
is of the Lord. They all agree who Christ Jesus
is. He's the God-man who successfully
redeemed His people. They all agree on the necessity
of the work of the Spirit who shows us, who reveals to us,
who demonstrates to us in our hearts that Christ Jesus settled
the issue 2,000 years ago when He justified us and He made us
righteous and He put our sins away. All of God's preachers
agree on this. All of God's preachers see eye
to eye on this. And we all see eye to eye on
this. Thy God reigneth. Thy God. He's your God. It's a wonderful
way for the Lord to speak to his people through his preachers. And they say, thy God, as we
would say, your God reigns. Wouldn't it be most encouraging
to you who are the children of God if the Holy Spirit now would
take these three words and bring them to you individually so that
you, in your heart of hearts, hear the Holy Spirit say to you,
your God reigns. Your God reigns. I read a story this week, Oliver
Cromwell, he sent a a general to Denmark. And he had some very
stern orders he was going with. Basically it was surrender or
else. And this general was to meet
with a very high-ranking individual in Denmark. And as they were
en route to get there, This general was trying to sleep and he laid
down with the rest of the men and he tossed and he turned.
And one young man laying beside of him, he couldn't get any rest
because the general wouldn't sleep. He said, sir, may I ask
you a question? He said, certainly. He said,
was God ruling the world before you was ever born? He said, absolutely. He said, let me ask you another
question. The general said, okay. He said,
will God rule the world when you leave this world? He said,
certainly. He said, General, may I ask you
one more question? If he ruled the world before
you got here, and he's still gonna be ruling the world when
you're gone, don't you think he's ruling right now? And the
general said, thank you, rolled over and went to sleep. I tell
you, this will cure those sleepless nights, those worries, the troubled
heart, the anxious spirit, the wearied mind. This is what will
steal it all. This is when the Lord speaks
peace to us. When He convinces us, we don't
just hear it from a man, but we hear it from God Himself,
and He says, your God reigns. Your God reigns. Your God reigns. Your God reigns. Lord, it breaks my heart and
it soothes my heart at the same time that you would have so much
love for me, that you care for me so much, that you rule all
the universe with my welfare in mind. Isn't that astounding? All of God's watchmen say to
Zion, Thy God reigneth. Thy God reigneth. He reigns in
creation and He reigns in providence. And oh, how we love this truth
also. He reigns in grace. He reigns
in salvation. It cannot be that God reigns
in creation, and He reigns in providence, and He doesn't reign
in salvation. He reigns in the saving of sinners. He has reigned on this, as on
these other two points, creation and providence, from old eternity. It's God Himself who predestinated
all things. He ordained all things. You say,
I don't believe in predestination. Well, don't you believe the Bible?
Don't you believe the Word of God? Don't you bow to the Scriptures? The God of the Bible is the God
of predestination. You set out to do things, something
significant. Don't you plan ahead? You plan
for retirement? You plan for this, you plan for
that. Do you mean God Almighty in His
infinite wisdom would have no plan? Would have nothing to go
by? And you who make your plans,
do your plans always come to pass? Well, no. Because you don't
like the power to bring them to pass all the time. There are
things that interfere, things unforeseen. Is there anything God doesn't
foresee? Is there anything that can frustrate
God? Is there anything to interrupt
what God designs to do? Listen, from the very beginning,
He ordained the end and everything in between. There is no such
thing as luck or chance or anything like that. There's God. God who
rules over all. God who from the beginning ordained
all things all the way to the end. Listen, it's all in the
mind and purpose of God finished already because He doesn't inhabit
time as we do. He inhabits eternity. And nothing
can change God, nothing can frustrate God. Not in creation, not in
providence, and not in grace. The Lord reigneth, say to the
heathen, the Lord reigneth. You know, in John chapter six,
our Lord Jesus, he's speaking to the heathen. He said, well,
they were Jews, but as far as their belief was concerned, they
were heathens. They didn't believe Christ Jesus.
When he said, I'm the true bread that came down from heaven, they
didn't believe him. But you know what he told them?
He told them, my Father reigns in grace. He said, you don't
believe me and you won't come to me, but all that the Father
giveth me, they shall come to me, and him that cometh to me,
I'll in no wise cast out. He told them, God reigns. Say
to the heathen, God reigns. That's what Christ did. We say,
well this is a doctrine that should be preached only to the
saved. Only to those who love the Lord.
Don't preach sovereignty, don't preach election, don't preach
predestination to those who don't know the Lord. They need to hear
about Jesus. They need to hear about the Lord
Jesus Christ who rules the world according to his will. You need
to tell them who God is. They need to find out. Then they
find out he's the almighty savior. The Lord reigns, he reigns in
grace. He said, I'll be merciful to whom I'll be merciful. I'll
be gracious to whom I'll be gracious. He reigns in salvation. You don't
reign over anything. You think you're in charge? You
think you have authority? The only authority, the only
kind of power you have is that which God gives you, but you
don't have the kind of power He's got. He has the power that enables
him to reign. And nobody can stand in his way.
Nobody can frustrate him. Nobody can make him make a move,
and when he moves, nobody can stop him. That's the God I worship. That's the God who reigns. He
reigns in the kingdom of creation, he reigns in the kingdom of providence,
and he reigns in the kingdom of grace. Go back over here to
our text in Psalm 97. So he says, after saying in verse
10 of Psalm 96, the Lord reigns, he says here in verse one of
Psalm 97, the Lord reigneth. He says this again, turn over
to Psalm 99 in verse one, the Lord reigneth. Psalm 99 verse
one, the Lord reigneth. Well, what effect should that
have on us? Let the people tremble. I read some of the things that
preachers today say. Occasionally I'll listen to them.
Nobody's trembling before the God they preach. The Lord reigneth, let the people
tremble. Let the people tremble. Let them shake in their boots.
Especially in opposition to this God. The Lord reigneth, let the
people tremble. He sits between the chair bends. Let the whole earth be moved.
Who do you think you're dealing with here? An equal? He said, my ways are not your
ways. My thoughts, not your thoughts.
Who can understand the ways and the thoughts of God? He's too
great. He's too glorious. Look back
over here at our text. The earth reigneth, Psalm 97
verse one. The earth reigneth, let the earth
rejoice. Let God's people scattered throughout
the earth rejoice in this. Let the multitude of the isles
be glad thereof. You see, because he reigns in
all things, he reigns in grace, he can send the gospel wherever
he wants to. and he can raise up a preacher
to send him forth to preach that gospel to people who would have
never heard the name of Jesus Christ aside from the fact that
God sent him somebody to preach to them. Let the multitude of
the isles be glad thereof. You know, to the Jews, everything
was an isle because they were pretty much They confined to
their area and anything across the sea, of course, it was an
island. They didn't know much about the rest of the world.
But as the rest of the world, as the gospel went forth to all
the nations of the earth, here's the message. Rejoice and be glad
that the Lord reigns. He reigns in the isles. He reigns
throughout the universe. And he says in the second verse,
clouds and darkness around about him. And it's got to be that way because
we could not stand a view of God in his glory without there
being some clouds and darkness. We couldn't stand it. We couldn't
live seeing him in the brightness of his glory. When He came to
Israel and He dealt with them from Mount Sinai, He came in
clouds and darkness. And the clouds and the darkness
indicates the mysterious ways that God goes about performing
His will. I just said His ways are past
finding out. You can't figure out what God's
doing. His ways are too dark. They're
too cloudy. And the only way you'll know
what He's doing is if He reveals it to you from His Word. And
then He says, righteousness and judgment are the habitation of
His throne. Listen, everything God does,
whether in creation or providence or salvation, everything He does
is upon this firm foundation, this sure ground, of righteousness
and judgment. It's right. Whatever God does
is right because He's the one that does it. He can't do anything
wrong. Why, His name is holy and reverent. He's right in all of His ways.
And then He says, judgment. That is, he does everything according
to justice. Listen, when God kicked Adam
and Eve out of the Garden of Eden, he was upon his throne
of righteousness and judgment. He did what was right. It would
not have been right to have left them unaffected. After threatening
Adam with death, It would not have been right for God to say,
well, I'll let you get by this time. No, because you see, the
foundation of God's throne is righteousness and judgment. God's
gonna do right, and he's gonna deal in justice, and there's
our fallen parents. They must be put out of the garden.
When God saw that every imagination of man's heart was only evil
continually, He destroyed the earth by water, saving only eight
souls. That which he did was according
to righteousness and judgment. What he did was right. You wouldn't
argue with what he did, would you? And you know what he did was
just. It was according to judgment.
When God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and the
cities of the plains, that judgment was according to righteousness
and judgment. God did what's right. God did
that which was just. And I go all the way through
the Old Testament, but when our Lord Jesus Christ died, God was
still upon His throne. And still the foundation, the
foundation of His throne was righteousness and judgment. And
there our Lord Jesus, as our substitute, bore our sins in
His own body on the tree. By imputation, He became guilty. guilty of our sins, guilty of
our imperfections, guilty of our faults. God is still upon
His throne, a throne established, founded upon, grounded upon righteousness
and judgment. God turned His back on His Son
and poured out upon Him all of the wrath for all of His people. all the wrath that his people
would have had to endure it for all eternity, he poured it out
on his son, and he was right when he did it. He was right
when he did it. He was a just God when he did
it. And when God, upon the basis
of the substitutionary sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, declares all
for whom he died to be justified, to be righteous, He's righteous when He does that
too. And He does that in justice. You see, God's going to deal
with all men in justice. Go all the way to the final judgment,
the great white throne. When all nations are gathered
before our Lord Jesus Christ and He separates the nations
as a shepherd would separate sheep from his goats. Sheep on
the right hand and goats on the left hand. God will still be
upon his throne. That's the Son of God seated
upon the great white throne. Judgment. And even then, the
standard will be righteousness and judgment or justice. Whatever
he does is right. And whatever he does, whatever
decree he will pass down, whatever sentence that will be executed
will be according to divine justice. And no guilty soul in that day
will be spared. And no innocent soul will be
punished. Because God can't do wrong. He must do right. And it's all
according to judgment. It's all according to justice.
And in that day, everybody will get exactly what they deserve. Exactly what they deserve. The
wicked, they have no sin offering. They have no mediator. They have
no Savior. They have no blood redemption.
They have no justification by grace. And they will hear the
words, depart from me, I never knew you. That'll be according to righteousness
and judgment. And to another group of people,
they will hear the words, come ye blessed of my Father from
the foundation of the world. Enter into the kingdom prepared
for you. That will also be according to
righteousness and judgment, because we are going to receive the just
rewards earned by our substitute, earned by our Savior, merited
by that one who stood for us, who died for us, and whoever
lives for us. And this one who gave himself
as a propitiation for our sins, the satisfaction of divine justice. He's the one who's seated upon
his throne in heaven above. And he reigns. Rejoice. I say to the people
of God, thy God reigneth. Go in peace. Go in joy. Go without a worry. Go without
a care. All things are in the hands of
Him who loved you and gave Himself for you. Your life, your family,
all the things that belong to you, all the things that involve
you, it's all in the hands of that One whose hands were nailed
to the cross for you. They're all in His hands. But
Lord reigneth. Let the people rejoice. Let the
people rejoice. And we do, don't we? We do rejoice
that He reigns. Well, let's sing a song.