a few years ago, and we had them
up in Michigan. We had them in the bulletin.
We sang it to a familiar tune. I don't remember what it was,
but that was, we sang in the morning service, and I got a
phone call in the afternoon from a fellow who said, I love those
words, Would it be okay if I wrote some music to go with it?" And
I said, that'd be fine. And he said, I'll tell you what,
if you'll let me use your words, I'll let you use my music. And
I said, that's a deal. So I don't even know the guy's
name. He's just JJ. That's all he was
JJ. So he wrote the music and it's
beautiful music that he wrote and just a nice simple tune and
I hope that God blessed you through the words and through the music. If you would open your Bibles
to Psalm 93. Several days ago, we buried Brother Jim Eccles, who
was a faithful laborer in the gospel here with
you for several years. I first met Jim back in 82. Brother Tim James and I were
up in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania at Jim's church. He pastored
up there. His wife had recently died, and
we just fell in love with him. He's such a sweet man, as you
know. And of course then, you know,
he wound up moving here and he and Juanita were married. But just a few days before God
took Jim to glory, he was sleeping most of the time, but one day
he woke up for just a little bit And one of his daughters,
he has two daughters, one of his daughters is there and her
husband and Mary Cunningham was there as well. And he said, this
is all he said, these three words, the Lord reigneth. That's all
he said. He went right back to sleep. And actually one of the family
members said, Well, dad, as his daughter said, his dad, he not
only instructed us as to how to live, but he's instructing
us in how to die. The Lord reigneth. And those
were, that was sort of the theme of what I had to say at the funeral. And I'd like to actually enlarge
upon that message today and speak to you on the subject, the Lord
reigneth. Indeed, these are the first three
words of Psalm 93, the Lord reigneth. Our brother read to us from 1
Chronicles chapter 16, and we read those same words, the Lord
reigneth. To God's people, to those who've
been brought by the Spirit of grace to believe the gospel,
to those who've been regenerated and enabled to believe Christ
Jesus, to see Him as our all, to see His blood as that alone
that washes away sin. To see his righteousness as that
which God freely imputes to us. That God justifies us by the
imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus to God's people. Those
that believe the Son of God as He's revealed in the scriptures.
Those that rest in Him for full salvation. This doctrine that
the Lord reigneth is a delightful, delightful doctrine. Under the most adverse circumstances,
in the midst of great troubles, when God lays upon us heavy trials, we rejoice to know that The Lord
reigns. He reigns over our afflictions. He reigns over our troubles. He reigns over our sicknesses. It's delightful to know that
our God is sovereign in everything. Everything. We rejoice in the
absolute reign of our God. It says, the Lord reigneth. And those last three letters
indicate to us that this is a situation that will never end. This is
ongoing. He always reigns. He always has
reigned. He's reigning right now. and
He always shall reign. And I would say there is no doctrine
of the Word of God, there is no truth of the Holy Scripture
for which we must more earnestly contend than God's dominion over
all of His creation, His sovereignty over all the works of His hands,
His authority that issues forth from His throne where he sits
in regal authority. God reigns. We rejoice to hear
our Lord say, is it not lawful for me to do what I will with
mine own? Nothing is more comforting to
the saints of God in this world than the knowledge of this fact.
Our God is in the heavens. and he hath done whatsoever he
hath pleased." We often say God is sovereign. And I have people to ask me,
what do you mean by that? And I say the root word is reign. When we say God is sovereign,
we simply mean God reigns. He reigns everywhere. He reigns
all the time, and He reigns over everything. This is a blessed,
blessed truth to the people of God. Oh, what consolation this
has brought to us in time of grief, in time of trouble. The Spirit of grace whispered
into our souls, the Lord reigneth. Oh, how that has soothed us,
how that has blessed us. And yet, though it's such a blessed
doctrine to the people of God, there are few doctrines as despised
by the natural man than this one, that God reigns, that the
Lord reigneth. the arrogance of man, the pride
of man that rebels against the suggestion that God reigns, rebels
against the truth that God has ordered everything, that God
has purposed everything, God controls everything, God rules
over everything, and the natural man says, no, no, no. I don't believe that. That mind filled with worldly
wisdom, filled with enmity against God, absolutely despises the
biblical truth that nothing comes to pass except that which is
according to the infinite and good will of our God. This is an undeniable truth. God reigns. The Lord reigns. He reigns in creation. He reigns
in providence. And He reigns in grace. He reigns
among the angels that worship at His throne. He reigns among
the demons who despise His name. God reigns. God reigns among
His people who believe Him, and who rest in Him, and who treasure
Him, and who find Him to be their life and their all. And He reigns
among those who curse His name. He reigns among those who despise
His Word. He reigns among those who refuse
to acknowledge that He reigns. Still, God reigns. The Lord reigneth. To answer
the question, does God reign? Is God sovereign? We don't go
to the old theology books to find the answer. Don't need to
do that. We go to the Scriptures. I remarked
to someone the other day that So often when men are weak on
some particular point of doctrine, or if they have embraced an erroneous
belief, rather than go to the scriptures and study what God
has to say, they go running off all the time to old writers looking
for somebody to prop up their belief. so that if they can find somebody
who believes what this person believes, they'll say, see there? This is what old Dr. So-and-so
believed 200 years ago. He's my authority. Well, to that
I say, with all due respect to Dr. So-and-so, We have but one authority. And
that's the Word of God. I don't go to the old writers
to establish me in some truth of the Word of God. I go to the
Word of God itself. And you say, preacher, that's
so simple. Well, you'd think it would be.
You think that would be the most reasonable thing to do, but people
go to other writers. But we must go to the Scriptures.
Now listen to what Isaiah said to the law and to the prophets,
to the testimony. If they speak not according to
this word, it is because there is no light in them. We must
understand something is not the truth, because I say it, or because
some greatly reputed writer of years ago said it, that doesn't
make something true. It's only true if God says it.
So Anna, I'm not discounting, I'm not saying don't ever read
any other book. But I'm saying read all other
books with somewhat of a critical eye. Because all books are written
by men and all men are sinners. And we are apt to make mistakes. Nobody has a grasp on all the
truth. But our Savior said of this book,
He said to the Father, Thy word is truth. We need to find out
what God has to say. on any subject that we're studying. And if you want to know if the
Lord reigns, don't go to see what the old theologians said.
Don't go find out what the old Baptists said. Look at the Word
of God. Look at the first three words
of this great psalm. The Lord reigneth. The Lord reigneth. And let me give you several things.
Number one, His reign is revealed in His eternal purpose. Look
with me in Ephesians chapter 1. The book of Ephesians chapter
1. The Lord reigneth. His reign
is revealed first of all in His eternal purpose. In Ephesians
chapter 1, what a glorious chapter. Here we have our great salvation
set forth. The work of the Father in electing
us unto salvation, the work of the Son, the One in whom we are
accepted, the One who redeemed us by His blood, therefore we
have the forgiveness of sins. We have the work of the Holy
Spirit who seals us into the day of redemption. But I draw
your attention to the 11th verse of Ephesians chapter 1, in whom
in Christ Jesus also we have obtained an inheritance. being
predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all
things after the counsel of His own will. All things after the
intent of His own will. He worketh all things. That word
worketh is energy. There is divine energy at work
in everything. In everything. You see our God
from the beginning, He has purposed everything that will ever come
to pass, and God by His divine, omnipotent, irresistible energy
is making all things work together to fulfill His purpose, and He's
working all things together for the good of His elect. That's
what it says in Romans chapter 8 and verse 28. You say, does
the Bible teach predestination? Well, here's the word right here.
Predestinated. Being predestinated according
to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel
of His own will. Before God made the world, God marked out the exact path
that everything that He would make would travel. And He ordained
the end where everything would wind up. That's His predestination. That's God's eternal purpose.
He has purposed everything that will ever come to pass. You say,
preacher, you talk like an absolute predestinarian. Well, then you
understand me correctly. I don't believe in fate. I don't
believe in luck. I believe God. I believe God. You mean God is this great? Oh
yes. You know the Lord said this to
Israel, you thought that I was altogether one such as yourself
with your limitations. But God has no limitations except
He can't sin and He can't lie. He can't do anything contrary
to His holy character. God has ordained everything that
will ever come to pass. That is His eternal purpose.
This is the Lord that reigns. This is our comfort, you see.
When those afflictions, they come your way in life. Where
will you find any comfort? Where will you find any consolation
except in the God who reigns? Who reigns over all of your circumstances? Who reigns over all of your trials? Who reigns over all of your difficulties? And you say in your heart then,
oh my God, I cry unto you, whatever your purpose is in bringing this
to pass in my life, let me learn the lesson that I need to learn
and let Let me see your glory in this. The Lord reigneth. The Lord reigneth. We don't have
a God. We don't worship a God who wants
to reign, who tries to reign, who is endeavoring to reign.
The Lord reigneth and He reigns according to His eternal purpose. We need to understand all things
are of God. And let's not just give lip service
to that. Let's believe it in our hearts.
Oh God, take the truth that's in my mind and drive it down
here into the very innermost being of my soul so that when
difficulties do come my way, I can rest in this. My God doesn't
make any mistakes. He's doing what's wise for me. He's doing what's best for me.
And in all of my circumstances, The Lord reigneth. The Lord reigneth. Before the world was made, He
purposed to save a people to the praise of the glory of His
grace. And that was an everlasting determination
which would be wrought out in what we call time. He chose to save a people. He
chose the Savior by whom they'd be saved. He chose the only way
they could be saved, by representation, by substitution, by satisfaction. He chose the people to be saved. And in choosing some, He passed
by the rest. Grace was given to a people in
Jesus Christ before the world began. And others he left in
their sinfulness to reap the wages of their sin. I would ask you, why is it that
you're not going to reap the wages of your sins, which is
death? Why is it that you're different?
Why is it that you sit here with the Word of God in your hands
and you love the Scriptures? Why is it that you bow to the
authority of God's Word? Why is it that you believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ in your very heart of hearts? Oh, you
don't believe Him perfectly? You don't believe Him like you
ought to believe Him? And you don't believe Him like you're
going to believe Him? But you do believe Him. And you rest
all of your hopes for life, for salvation, for the forgiveness
of sins, and for everlasting righteousness on Jesus Christ
alone. I ask you, why are you different?
Why are you different? I listened to a little bit of
the funeral, Justice Scalia yesterday. And the message, of course, was
work salvation. A service full of pomp and ceremony. Why are we different? No gaudy robes. No silly crosses. No stained glass windows with
religious pictures on them. No crucifix. No statue of Mary. A simple worship service. Flesh
not being bragged on. Nobody talking about being baptized
into the kingdom of God. Nobody talking about literally
eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Jesus Christ. Here we are, worshiping God through
the doing and the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. Believing
salvation by grace alone. Through Christ alone. Revealed
in the word of God alone. Why are we different? I'll tell you why we're different.
The Lord reigneth. The Lord reigneth. And ere he
ever made the world, he made us to be different. He said,
this people I make for myself. And I'll make them anew in my
son, Christ Jesus. And I'll send my spirit to them
through the preached word. And the Spirit will do a work
of grace in them. But these others, I leave them
to themselves. Let me tell you this. Whenever we preach that the Lord
reigneth, we're not relieving sinners of their responsibility
to believe the gospel. Did you know that? Listen, you're
responsible to believe on Jesus Christ. God now commandeth all men everywhere
to repent. That's what all men everywhere. You need to turn from your idols and turn from all of your dead
religious works to Jesus Christ and find in Him all of your hopes
for salvation and righteousness. You're responsible to do that.
Don't confuse responsibility though with ability. You see, here's the sad fact
in Adam, we lost all ability. We died. We died. We love sin. We hate righteousness. We'll receive the message of
salvation by works, salvation by baptism, count a bunch of
beads, say a bunch of Hail Marys, Makes me feel so much better.
And we'll receive those. We'll receive a lie every time. But God's truth of salvation
by grace, salvation conditioned upon the blood and the righteousness
of Jesus Christ alone, that's a message we will not receive. We will not bow to the authority
of scripture that teaches that. unless and until God does the
work of grace in our hearts. And it's up to Him to do the
work. You see, when we say the Lord
reigns, we say He reigns in His eternal purpose. And if He leaves us alone, if
He doesn't deal with us in mercy, What can you do? What can you
say about it? If you die in your sins, you
just get what you deserve. And this is what I ask God to
do for me and what I ask Him to do for me is to do for you.
Oh God, give us what we don't deserve. Oh, shower us with your
mercies. Pour out your grace to us. And thank God, He is saving people. He is in the mercy business.
He is in the grace business. He plenties in mercy, it says,
to all that call upon Him. This is a great salvation. He
saves the lowest of the low, the vilest of the vile. You see,
in His eternal purpose of grace wherein the Lord reigned, He
didn't choose good people to be saved. There were no good
people. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. God
justifies us freely by His blood through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus. He justifies sinners like you
and me. Like us. Like us. And He does
that according to His eternal purpose of grace. His reign is
revealed in His eternal purpose. His reign is revealed in creation. The Lord reigneth. Nothing moved
God to create except His own sovereign will and purpose. What
could move God to create? Nothing existed but God. He created all things. He made
all things. He made all things for Himself
and He made all things for His pleasure. I was having a conversation with
a person just the other day and we were talking about all of
the heavenly bodies on out beyond the Milky Way and we were talking
about the stars and planets and so forth, that suns that no human
eye will ever see. And this person said, I wonder
why God made those things. We'll never see them. They're
way beyond. They're light, light, hundreds
of thousands of light years away. Wonder why God made all those
things? For His pleasure. For His eye. For His glory. Behold the magnificence
and the wonders, the magnitude of the greatness of our God.
You see, man thinks it's all about us. Everything is centered
about, well, how does that affect me? What's that got to do with
me? Oh, you read something in the
newspaper and say, well, that don't have anything to do with
me. That's how self-centered we are. But it's not about us.
It's about God. It's about God's glory. It's
about God's pleasure. It's about God's will. It's about
God's purpose. That's what it's all about. I
wish that would get a hold of us. I've had people come to church
and say, you know, I didn't get anything out of the service today.
I said, well, bless your heart. This service really isn't for
you. It's for God. Well, I'm bragging on the Lord.
I'm preaching Christ up. I'm preaching God up. I'm telling
who God is in His greatness, in His glory, in His power, in
His wisdom, in His infinity, in His eternality. I'm bragging
on God. If you don't get anything out
of it, at least God's name has been exalted. Telling people
who God is. Telling people who Christ is.
The wonders of His person. That He's all in all. He's all
to be known. He's all to be loved. He's all
to be trusted. He's all in salvation. He's all
in creation. He's all in providence. He's
all in all in the scriptures. Christ is all. That's what we're
telling people. It's not about you. It's not
about me. It's about Him. He made the world. Listen to Revelation 4.11. Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive
glory and honor and power, for Thou hast created all things,
and for Thy pleasure they are and were created." In all of creation, the Lord
reigneth. The Lord reigneth. He made everything
exactly the way He wanted to make them. Behold His reign in providence. The Lord reigneth in providence.
What is providence? It's the carrying out of His
eternal purpose of predestination. And in all that happens in this
world, the Lord reigneth. The Lord reigneth. His sovereign
rule of providence extends everywhere and to everything and everybody. All things that happen fulfill
the eternal will and purpose of God. He's directing everything
to the end He's already appointed. Providence. What a comforting
truth providence is. And isn't it sad that you go
into a lot of places, you go into a lot of churches, you start
talking about the providence of God and they say, what in
the world are you talking about? Providence? And I know the founding fathers
of our country. They didn't have any understanding
of the gospel. But I will tell you this, they
often spoke about providence, didn't they? You can read the
history books. They talk about providence, the providence of
our Creator. At least they had some idea that
there is somebody who is guiding everything along to its destination. We have a
destination marked out for us. And our Lord is guiding us along,
you who are His people. He's predestinated you to be
conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. He's guiding you along. Now sometimes, let's be honest
now, sometimes He takes us in directions that we'd rather not
go. We'd rather the route went maybe
a little, maybe an alternate route, Lord. to get to the same
destination. No. The route He chose for you
in His eternal purpose, His providence is leading you on that route. And His providence is not going
to lead you in a way that you ought not go. The steps of a good man are ordered
by the Lord. That's Christ Jesus first. God
directed His steps. And we're made good in Christ
Jesus. He directs our steps. And our
steps will end in heaven's glory. There to abide with the Savior
forever. His reign is revealed in divine
providence. All things fulfill His will. The Lord reigns in providence.
He reigns in sickness. He reigns in health. He gives to one a cancer that
can be healed and cured. He gives to another a cancer
that will wind up in their death. It is the Lord. Let Him do what
seemeth good in His sight. He gives to one, He makes one
person to be a picture of health. Never have a sick day. Never
miss work. They go have a long life. Another
person, they're born sickly. Sick through school. Finally,
they're disabled. Try to work, they're disabled.
They just have no physical ability to work. Who makes the difference? Who makes the difference? God's
sovereign over all things. He's sovereign over physical
abilities. He's sovereign over mental abilities. Here we are this morning. We
have reasoning capabilities. We can think. We can read. We can study. We can comprehend,
at least with natural comprehension, and thank God for spiritual comprehension. But there are others that God
doesn't give those gifts to. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? You're strong, able to work.
Others are weakly and sickly all the days of their lives.
Who makes the difference? God makes a difference. He reigns
in providence. Everything that happens. And
the greatest illustration of that is even the wickedness of
men will praise God. Did you know that? Even man's
wickedness. And of that, the greatest illustration
is the death of our Lord Jesus. Because you have a bunch of wicked
people who despised each other naturally, but they found the
common enemy. Jesus of Nazareth. And so Herod
and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the Jews all ganged up on
Him. We studied in our Sunday School
lesson in Psalm 118 this morning. Like bees just stinging Him. Like thorns sticking Him. Oh, oh how they came against
the Lamb of God. But you know what? It all fulfilled
God's purpose. That's providence at work. Because
He was ordained from old eternity that Christ give His life as
the sacrifice for His people. He's lamb slain from before the
foundation of the world. And lo, He comes into this world
and everything that happens is pointing Him to the cross, taking
Him to the cross. And the disciples said, don't
go to Jerusalem! Whatever you do, don't go to
Jerusalem! Isaiah says, He set His face
like a flint to go. Why? That's God's divine, God's
eternal determination for him. If he doesn't die, there's no
life for us. If he doesn't die, there's no
forgiveness for us. If he doesn't die, there's no
righteousness for us. He must die because God ordained
that he die. He died because God purposed
his death in order that God be just and justify the ungodly. That's providence at work. And that's at work in everything
else too. In God's reign, the Lord reigneth
in salvation. In election, God reigns. He chose a people unto salvation.
In redemption, the Lord reigneth. He bought those people. Christ
Jesus bought those people that the Father gave Him. In the sending
forth of the Gospel, the Lord reigneth. He sends it to one
town, doesn't send it to another. He sends it to one community,
doesn't send it to another. He sends it to one member of
a family and doesn't send it maybe to the rest of the members
of the family. Who maketh thee to differ from
another in grace? In effectual calling, the Lord
reigneth. Two people sitting side by side
hear the same message, hear the voice of the same preacher, hear
the exact same words, and one of them is smitten in the heart
and says, Oh God, I'm such a sinner. Is there mercy for me? Oh God,
save me for Jesus Christ's sake. I look to the Savior alone. Oh
God, He's all of my hope. And the other one sits there
just hard as a rock. He's sovereign in salvation.
He's sovereign in effectual calling. He's sovereign in the new birth.
He's sovereign in giving the gifts of repentance and faith.
He's sovereign in preserving us and keeping us and glorifying
us. It's all of grace. I tell you,
He's sovereign. The Lord reigneth. The Lord reigneth. And if you don't worship the
Lord who reigns over all things, You haven't worshipped God. You
have not worshipped until you've worshipped the God who reigns
over everything. Because that's a God with whom
we have to do. Not preaching the God who needs
you and wants you and hopes that you'll let him do thus and so.
No, that's not the God we preach. I'm preaching the Lord reigneth.
That's the one you got to know. That's the only one who can help
you. So I don't plead with you, let God do something for you.
I say, Oh, the Lord who reigneth, do something for us. You can
save us, if you will. You can show us mercy, if you
will. You can help us, if you will. If you will. And the glory, Lord, shall be
yours alone. The Lord reigneth. Let's sing
a closing