I couldn't help but think as
we sang that song a moment ago, we'll wait till Jesus comes.
I grew up singing that song a little different. I'm not sure that the author
of the hymn, I'm not sure who the author of the hymn was, and
I'm not sure which way that he had written it, if that book,
if it's changed in that book, or if it was changed in the book that I grew up seeing,
the song. But certainly we believe that
God's people are called unto a work, that they should perform. But we also believe that the
Lord worketh in us both the will and to do of His good pleasure.
And so that any work that is performed by us is performed
in us by the grace of God. And so that we have nothing whereof
to boast. So we do not aggrandize working
for the Lord because it's a privilege. is not something that we'll plan
to do, it's something that the Lord plans for us to do. And He does it according to the
good pleasure of His will. And so we will wait upon the
Lord, hopefully, with gladness and expectation, because that's
the place that the Lord would have us to be. to wait for His
coming, to look unto Him, knowing that this world is not our home. We're looking at Psalm 97. Psalm 97. The Lord reigneth. Let the earth rejoice. Let the
multitude of isles be glad thereof. Clouds and darkness are round
about him. Righteousness and judgment are
the habitation of his throne. A fire goeth before him and burneth
up his enemies around about. His lightnings enlightened the
world. The earth saw and trembled. The
hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the
presence of the Lord of the whole earth. The heavens declare his
righteousness, and all the people see his glory. Confounded be
all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols.
Worship him, all ye gods. Zion heard and was glad, and
the daughters of Judah rejoiced because of thy judgments, O Lord.
For thou, Lord, art high above all the earth. Thou art exalted
far above all gods. Ye that love the Lord hate evil.
He preserveth the souls of his saints. He delivereth them out
of the hand of the wicked. Light is sown for the righteous
and gladness for the upright in heart. Rejoice in the Lord,
ye righteous, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. Of course, this psalm begins
with a declaration that I believe is the declaration of the gospel,
which is the Lord reigneth. I mean, He's in charge. He's
in control. He's the one. It's not anything
left up to men. I've heard that many times. Well, you know, the Lord did
all these things, and now He has left it up Well, brethren,
we're in trouble if the Lord left it up to us. I mean, that's
a sad place to be. But for the Lord reigneth, he
rules and he reigns. And that is the message that
the gospel, when Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, that
was the message that he preached. That thy God reigneth, Jesus
Christ, this man whom ye have crucified and slain, God has
raised him up. to be both Lord and Christ in
spite of all that men do. You know, men attempt and think
to do many things against the Lord. But everything that man
does, which he designs in his own mind as being against the
Lord, just does the will of God. Man can't help but do the will
of God. I mean, whether under condemnation or whether under
blessing, it's just the Lord reigneth. He is that sovereign
God who rules, as Nebuchadnezzar plainly said, in the army of
heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. Now, most everybody
believes that God rules in heaven, don't they? But they kind of
just think that the earth, the world, and all these things are
just kind of like a toy that's been wound up and the Lord's
just watching it go here and there and everywhere. But the
Lord rained it. And there's not one blade of
grass in the earth that wasn't placed exactly in the spot that
it's in according to his purpose. Charles Spurgeon, I believe it
was, said that the grains of sand, which are stirred up by
a wave crashing to the shore, move in as much a prescribed
orbit in that wave as do the planets revolve around the sun
in the solar system. Now, you know, it's a glorious
thing when you consider the minuteness of the creation. I mean, the
grandeur of it is it goes as far as we can see, but the minuteness
of it goes farther than we can see as well. I mean, they've
discovered, supposedly, you know, man thinks that he's got the
final word. I remember when I was going to
school, I believe they said there was 103 elements. Couldn't be
any more. That was it. And now, I don't
know. They found more than that or
made more than that or whatever. I mean, thought they made them
anyway. Men think in their limited capacity,
they think is an unlimited capacity and they're just discovering
things right and left. But man knows nothing as he ought
to know. He can't know anything. I mean,
where does a thought come from? How does a man come up with a
discovery? You know, men discover stuff
and we pat them on the back for it. But we should just give God
the glory for showing this to men. Because these things, men
did not make them. They didn't come up with it.
God just showed them where it was. And so it is, the Lord reigneth. And He gives to men such things
as it pleases Him. Let the earth rejoice. Now, to
the man who does not love the way of God, the concept of God
reigning gets under skin. He just doesn't like the consideration
that God's an absolute sovereign. There's just something about
that that he goes contrary to him. Well, you know, we believe
in God and everything, but I mean, you carry it too far. No, the
Lord reigneth. Let the earth rejoice. What a
glorious thing to think of a God who controls all things, holds
all things in the palm of His hand and does according to His
will as He sees fit. And He shows mercy to men. That's
the thing that just ought to astound us beyond measure. Now
men, by and large, think that God should show mercy to them.
I mean, they just feel like that somehow or other they're owed
a consideration. I mean, why should God even hear
one prayer of any man on the face of the earth? Why should
he take any consideration of man? David said it, he said,
what is man that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man that
thou didst visit him. Now, if anything is contrary
to popular modern psychology, that particular concept is. Because modern psychology begins
with the concept of man is worth something. Does it not? You are
really something. And David did indeed say we are
fearfully and wonderfully made. We are indeed wondrously made
creatures. But our worth, any worth that
we have is that which is given to us by the Lord. It's not something
that came from us, but it's something that was given to us. And so
indeed, the Lord has a purpose for all things. And he created
man for the purpose of bringing glory to his name. Now, if we
understand that, and rejoice in it, we are a blessed people.
To know that all these things were made by God for His glory. Not for the glory of men, not
for men to discover stuff, but for God to get glory. Let the
earth rejoice. The Lord reigneth. Let the multitude
of isles be glad thereof. The multitude of isles. You look
at a, map or a globe, if there is a globe, and we believe
there is, but I have to laugh every time I think about this
because I've got some friends that are pretty strong into the
idea that the earth is flat. Now, I don't have all the scientific
answers for all of these things. I mean, I've always believed
that the Earth was a globe, and I believe there's reason to believe
that it is, but nonetheless, you know, how can you prove that
one way or another? You really can't. I mean, realistically,
you cannot do it. I know that all the theories
and whatnot of how it's supposed to be. You can go up in a spaceship
and you can look down and all that kind of stuff. And so I'm
satisfied that the Earth's a globe. But anyway, if you look at it
and you look at the masses of land, all of the land masses
on the Earth are islands. I mean, the Lord made the countries
of the world and the continents to be separated on earth according
to His good pleasure. Now, and the scripture even speaks
about, it says, in the days of Peleg that the earth was divided. Now, I don't know if that means
that that was the time in which, you know, of course a lot of
scientists believe that all the continents were together at one
time and then they spread apart. Now, I don't know if that specific
verse has anything to do with that or not. It might mean something
else totally, but it's a possibility. that at that particular time,
I know there's been great cataclysms in the earth that the Lord's
brought to pass according to the good pleasure of His will.
And so that all these things, I mean, the Lord could have made
it just like it, we see it today as it is and never changed anything
if it pleased Him. But I believe that He has done
things in the earth in order to demonstrate the glory of His
power and the fact that He does reign in the earth. And what
He shall yet do to the earth is beyond our comprehension.
The Scripture says that the elements are going to melt with the fervent
heat. Now that's global warming if I've ever heard of it. I mean,
that is going to happen. We do believe in global warming. But it's going to be a sudden
thing. It's not going to be a gradual
thing. It's going to take place according to the good pleasure
of God. Clouds and darkness are round about him, righteousness
and judgment. or the habitation of his throne
a fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round
about." Now it's impossible that a man can have a right understanding
of who God is unless he understands that God is the judge of the
earth. Now it is appointed unto men
once to die and after this the judgment. You cannot escape that. And the fact is that the scripture
indicates that judgment is the habitation, that's where God
lives, is in that judgment, the righteousness of God. And the
righteousness and judgment of God flows out of the fact that
He's holy, that He's eternal. He has a right to judge the earth. Now, some say and argue against
the predestination of all things by God and say, well, if that's
so, then man wouldn't be responsible. Well, he would be if God made
him that way. I mean, if God says you're responsible,
it doesn't matter whether you like it or not. What are you going to do about
it? Not one thing. You see, men are shut up to the
mercy of God. He is that one. who rules judgment
or the habitation, righteousness and judgment are the habitation
of his throne. Now God will do right. He may show mercy. Now men often
like to sit in judgment and say, well, God couldn't do this. Well,
you know, it wouldn't be right if God did this or if God did
that. Why does God do this? Well, men don't have a place
or a platform from which to judge God. God is the one that judges
men. And so men don't have any room
or place that they might accuse God of anything. Now you talk
about getting folks mad. You get a follower that doesn't
want to bow down before God, and he'll get mad about that
because he don't like that. That's not right. It's not fair.
It's not the way he likes to think of God. He likes to think
of God as this kind, gentle old man that wouldn't hurt a flea,
and he's just sitting up there in heaven in a rocking chair
hoping things will turn out. Our God's in the heavens. He
hath none whatsoever he hath pleased. A fire goeth before
him. The scripture says that he is
a consuming fire. Well, that sounds pretty scary.
Yes, it is. I mean, he is a consuming fire
and he burns up those according to the good pleasure of his will.
He burns up his enemies round about. Now that causes me not
to want to be his enemy. I mean, when I think of that,
you know, that is the fear of God. Now some people say, well,
you know, the fear of God doesn't mean that we're afraid of him.
Well, you better be. because He is a consuming fire. Now, at the same time, we fear
Him because we believe He's our Father, and we know, as the scripture
says, that He loves us with an everlasting love, and we desire
to be drawn close unto Him. But he is indeed that one who
does burn up his enemies. His lightnings enlightened the
world. The earth saw and trembled. Who
doesn't tremble when the lightning strikes? You know, I don't care
how used to it or whatever, you can be walking along and if lightning
strikes over there, I guarantee you, you will jump. You know,
you can't help it. I mean, that's just the way it
is. And whose lightning is it? Scripture says it's His. His
lightning. His lightning's enlightened the
world. That is, any lightning or that
is any light that comes into the world comes from Him. He
is the one who sends it. I've said this before, but I
think this is an amazing thing. And I think that people don't
think about this enough. The Lord created the light. First,
he said, let there be light. Three days later, he made the
sun. That light was existent before
the sun ever shone its first ray. The sun has light because
God gave it to it. You know, when the children of
Israel, when the plagues came on Egypt and there was darkness
upon the face of the earth, but it says there was a light in
the houses of the children of Israel. Now, I've seen this depicted,
and of course they all got lamps. I think in the book, in the movie,
the Ten Commandments, I believe it shows this happening, and
they've all got their lamps lit and all that kind of stuff. I
don't believe that's the way it was. I believe the Lord just
made it light in there because it pleased Him, because He is
the light. and his lightning enlightened the world. The earth
saw and trembled. The hills melted like wax at
the presence of the Lord. Even the inanimate objects of
the earth give glory unto God. And worship Him as we spoke last
week about the, shall all the trees of the wood rejoice. The
trees of the field shall clap their hands. The wolves, when
they howl at the moon, they give glory unto God. Now they don't
cognizantly understand that, or at least I don't think they
do. I don't know what wolves and dogs and all that kind of
stuff, what goes on in their mind. But the Lord made the creation
the way He wanted it to be, and He made it to bring glory unto
His name. What a glorious thing it is.
The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at
the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. Not Israel, not
Israel. The United States? You know,
people think of, oh man, we're, you know, the United States,
we're just this special nation on the face of the earth. And
God has blessed us as a nation. There's no question about that.
But dear brethren, the nations, the scripture says, not one nation,
but the nations are as a drop of the bucket. Now that is, you
know, when you have washed the bucket out, and you shook the
water out, and there's a little old speck of water still in that
bucket, that's just exactly what the nations of the earth are
before Almighty God. They're as a drop of the bucket,
they're insignificant. Now, again, men don't want to
be told that, that we're insignificant. We want to think we're important.
But oh, before Almighty God, we're as the drop of the bucket.
As the script says, as the dust of the balance. The heavens declare His righteousness
and all the people see His glory. Man is without excuse. Scripture
plainly says that. Because the whole creation bears
witness to the glory of God, to the righteousness of God.
And men, by nature, would reject that. And by nature would worship
and serve the creature more than the creator. That doesn't mean
they don't have religion, because men love religion. But they like
a religion that builds up men. See, that's the whole purpose
of religion in the minds of most people is to build up men. Now we believe, this is a true
thing, that the truth of God does indeed build up men. It
causes men to see the truth and the glory in Jesus Christ, but
it causes them to see what they are by nature and to fall down
and worship Him who's worthy of all praise. And so it is that
the heavens declare His righteousness, and all the people see His glory,
whether they want to or not. I mean, a man... I was thinking,
of course, you hear about the evolutionists always telling
us that men came from amoebas and whatever, and they got into
this, and then they turned into that, and they went this, here,
and there, and that, and the other. Well, where'd the plants
come from? I mean, did the plants come from
an amoeba or what? How did they start? I mean, I've
never heard anybody really explain that too much, but maybe the
amoeba mutated into a plant or whatever. But you get to looking
at all the intricacies of the plants. A fella gave us some
eggplants. I don't eat eggplants, but he
brought these things. Linda likes them. And so I took
them home. But you're just taking a look
at an eggplant. That's just a simple thing really,
but how complex is an eggplant now? When you think about how
the outside of that, and there's layers to the skin, and every
little layer of the skin goes something, and then all of a
sudden, it turns into an edible part that's inside of that, and
then it's got those seeds in it, and contained in those seeds,
are millions of eggplants in this one eggplant. You know,
think about it. Think about one seed out of an
eggplant. You go plant that seed and the
Lord causes it to sprout and it grows up into another eggplant. And guess what? That eggplant
has seeds in it. And you take one seed out of
that and plant it, and it grows up, and it's just incredible. And when you pause and think
that when God made the first eggplant, He made every eggplant
that there was going to be. Oh, what a glorious God He is.
A great and mighty God. And the heavens declare His glory,
and the earth shall rejoice before Almighty God. Oh, what a glorious
one He is. The heavens declare His righteousness.
Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves
of idols. Worship Him, all ye gods. Oh, the earth shall be confounded,
because the men of the earth have made themselves many gods,
and they rely upon these gods. And they sincerely believe that
the God of their imagination, the one whom they have decided,
no, this is the way God is. I know this is how God is. He
couldn't be like that guy saying, you know, this consuming fire. He couldn't be like that. No,
because the scripture says that God is love. Now the scripture
does say God is love. Most assuredly is He is love.
We love Him because He first loved us. But dear brethren,
His love is His love. And His love is directed according
to the good pleasure of His will. It's not just some general thing
that's out here in the earth, but it's according to the good
pleasure. He said to the nation of Israel, I didn't love you
because you were more than any people on earth, but he said,
because you were the fewest. But he said, I love you because
I set my love upon you. He said, I saw you when you were
in your blood. He said, when you were cast out
to the loathing of your flesh, and I spread my skirt upon you,
and behold, it was the time of love, and thou becamest mine. The Lord loves His people with
an everlasting love. And He'll never forsake them.
He'll never cast them off. He loved them from the beginning.
And he said, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. Now people
get mad when they hear about God hating Esau, but brethren,
he should have hated Esau. The thing that amazes me is not
that he hated Esau, but that he loved Jacob. I mean, think
about that. Why should he have loved Jacob?
No reason. except that He loved him according
to the good pleasure of His will. Oh, what a glorious Savior. What a lovely message that He
has given to the men of the earth that He has sent His Son into
the earth to die for sinners, not for the good folks. Now,
most religion wants to produce good folks. You know, and they
spend a lot of time producing good folks. They tell folks how
to be good. And people are satisfied to be
good. You know, up to a point. I mean, you don't want to carry
it too far. I mean, you know, you want to be good, just good
enough. I mean, you don't want to be
too good. You want to just be good enough, see. But the Lord
is the one that loves sinners. those unworthy of the least of
the Lord's mercies. And so when you think of the
fact that God is love, that's where you need to remember. Who
he loved. Not just some generic thought
about God being loved, but the fact that he loved sinners, such
as we are. And in his own time, sent his
son to die, that we might have eternal life. And the Lord does
receive sinners. Never been a sinner that called
on the name of the Lord and sought mercy from His hand that did
not receive Him. Because such is the work of God,
to awaken dead sinners. Because who will seek the Lord? How can a man seek the Lord?
There's none good, no not one. There's none righteous. There's
none that seeketh after God. How does it happen? Because of
the love of God. We love Him because He first
loved us. What a glorious Savior He is.
Let all the earth rejoice. Let all the nations bow down
and worship Him. For surely He is worthy of our
praise. May the Lord give us a mind and
heart to seek Him today.