We're gonna be looking again
in the Psalms. Psalm 93. It says, the Lord reigneth. He is
clothed with majesty. The Lord is clothed with strength,
wherewith he hath girded himself. The world also established that
it cannot be moved. Thy throne is established of
old, Thou art from everlasting. The floods have lifted up, O
Lord. The floods have lifted up their
voice. The floods lift up their waves.
But the Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters,
yea, than the mighty waves of the sea. Thy testimonies are
very sure. Holiness becometh or adorns thine
house, O Lord, forever. You would think that the men of this world would roundly
agree that the Lord reigneth. But the sad fact of the matter
is that men of all things on the earth that seem to be clearly
set forth in nature itself, That one thing is the very thing that
men set themselves against God because they don't mind for men
to talk about God reigning as long as you understand that He
doesn't reign over them. Now a lot of people, when David
said, the fool has said in his heart there is no God. Even the
greatest of fools actually know there's a God. I mean, if trouble
gets bad enough or whatever happens, they'll cry out to God. Now,
it's what they think of God as, of course. But it is nonetheless,
a man can't escape that. So when David said the fool has
said in his heart there is no God, he's not specifically talking
about the fact that they are saying like the atheists claim
to believe there is no God. But rather they are saying there
is no God for me. There's no God who is going to
reign over me. I'm going to do what I want to
do. There may be a God up in the heavens. You know, that's
like the agnostics. They say, well, you know, we
just can't know if there's a God. I mean, that's a cop-out, of
course. They just don't want to deal with the issues and the
truth. But they say, well, we just can't
tell. We're not necessarily against God. And that's kind of the way
that I would say more people are. Because if you go around
our community, you'd find very few people that would just come
right out and tell you they don't believe God exists. I mean, you'd
be hard-pressed to find probably 25 or 30 people that just absolutely
would say they just do not believe. No, they believe there's God.
They believe He's out there. They even believe that, well,
He looks on the heart. They believe that. Now, you know,
I've often thought about that, that men, by nature, when they
hear that the Lord looks on the heart, they're encouraged by
that. But you know, a man that's been awakened by the Spirit of
God, there's nothing that causes him more fear and trouble than
to consider that God looks on heart. Because David said, the
heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. Who can know it? But
the Lord looks on it. He sees exactly what you are.
He knows that we're dust. He knows our frame. He knows
what we are by nature. We can't escape from his all-seeing
eye. And so when men take comfort
in the fact that God looks on the heart, then they are sadly
misunderstanding what it is that God sees. Because God doesn't
see. the righteousness of men and
a favorable light. Now, men think that he does,
do they not? I mean, they think that if they
do good, well, God, he's smiling on that. But the Lord said to
Isaiah, he said, your righteousness is. He didn't say anything about
their wickedness. He said your righteousnesses
are as filthy rags before Almighty God. I mean, what can a man do
to make himself pleasing in the eyes of God? And the answer is
absolutely nothing. Because everything that we do
is in one shape or another tainted with sin. Now that doesn't fit
well with the modern concept of man's intrinsic worth before
Almighty God. See, men think that God looks
on man and He says, well, I made him, so there's gotta be some
good in him, and so I'll fan the flames and try to get it
all. But no, God made man for the purpose of manifesting the
glory of His grace and the redemption of His people in Jesus Christ.
That's why He made men. And the world's in rebellion
against that. They don't want to hear that.
Oh, that's so narrow-minded. That's so ridiculous. You know,
there's got to be a greater, broader thing than that. No,
dear brethren, anything that leads men to turn their eyes
away from the redemptive work of Jesus Christ is a falsehood. Paul said, God forbid that I
should glory save in the cross of Jesus Christ. He said, I determined
to preach nothing among you, but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And that's the only message that
we have. That's the only message that
you find throughout the pages of the scripture. And so when
we read here, the Lord reigneth. He is clothed with majesty. It's
speaking about the reign of Jesus Christ as the Redeemer King,
as that One who has designed, ordained, and set forth a world
unto His own glory and has purposed to have it work and act and go
just exactly like He pleases for it to do. He reigns. And
in order to demonstrate the power of His grace, He has come into
the world, made in the likeness of sinful flesh, and triumphed
over sin. Now, the glory of God can't be
overstated. I mean, if we just sat day after
day after day, sat by and said, glory, glory, glory, glory, glory
to God, we'd never be able to give Him more glory. Now, this
old flesh would fall out after a while. I mean, our tongues
would probably get blisters on it, and we wouldn't be able to
do that. But you know, the Lord has created
some creatures. that do that without ceasing. They cry, holy, holy, holy, Lord
God Almighty. who was and is and is to come. He is that one of whom we speak
of today. The Lord reigneth. He is clothed
with majesty. He has stretched out the heavens,
the script says, like a garment. Just like you spread out your
clothes on the bed before you put them on. The Lord stretched
out the heavens like a garment. The glory of God is seen in His
handiwork, but that's not the extent of His glory. Now the
natural man, that's the extent of the glory of God that he can
see. Now that's a good thing. I mean, we do rejoice in the
handiwork of God. I mean, we see around us and
we're amazed. I mean, you could take a leaf
and study a leaf all your life. And you never get to all of the
intricacies and the designs and the way that leaf and the functions
of that leaf. Just think about that. I mean,
think about how the Lord designed the, I can't think of the word I'm thinking
of here. Not the practice, but anyway, photosynthesis. What
would you call that? The process, there we go. The process of photosynthesis. How that a tree has a leaf on
it, And that thing takes in carbon dioxide and turns it into oxygen. Now, how can that be? How could
something like that have evolved? I mean, how is that? How is that
possible? Just a leaf. And then to think
that there's just quadruple millions and billions of leaves on trees,
and every one of them's in the exact spot the Lord wanted them
to be. to produce the oxygen that he was pleased to make. Now could he have made oxygen
and replenished it without photosynthesis? If it had pleased him to do so,
he sure could have. He has said all of this stuff
around us that the natural man would have no excuse, if for
no other reason, the natural man has no excuse for not worshiping
God. Because the things of God are
plainly seen, so that man is without excuse. But dear brethren,
God's people have been given a greater glimpse into the glory
of God than just to survey the heavens. and the handiwork of
God, which is beyond anything we could ever imagine, to show
to us the work that Jesus Christ has done in triumphing mightily
over all of His foes and bringing redemption unto His people. The
Lord reigneth. He is clothed with majesty. And the majesty of the Almighty
God is seen in just what Brother Al was talking about there this
morning when he mentioned about when the Lord showed His glory
to Moses. Now he could have told him anything,
said, this is my glory. But Moses said, I want to see
your glory. He said, well, here it is, Moses. I'll show mercy
to whom I will show mercy. Now that's a glorious thing.
Because see, men look at that and they say, well that's not
fair. But you see, a sinner looks at that and he says, glory to
God. God's a God of mercy. He shows
mercy. Now I can't determine nor can
I cause God to show mercy to me. But just to read of the fact
that He shows mercy is a glorious thing. Because what if He didn't
show mercy? What if He said, I'm not going
to show mercy to anybody? What could anybody have said?
Not a thing in the world. You couldn't bring a railing
accusation against God and say, well, Lord, you should have showed
mercy to us. No. He said, I'll show mercy
to whom I will show mercy. But in order that men might know
what they are by nature, He said, I will show it to whom I will.
And really, mercy can't be any other way, can it? Because I
mean mercy. That's exactly correct. If a
man could do something to cause mercy to come his way, it wouldn't
be mercy, would it? It'd be something that he earned. But he is clothed with majesty.
David said, there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be
feared. And if you pause and think about
that, that is an amazing thing. I mean, we all know what feelings
of revenge are, do we not? I mean, you know you do. I mean,
don't a day go by when you don't say, well, that's sorry, you
know, so and so, and you just know, buddy, you know, you just
think, well, he's gonna get what's coming to him and all that kind
of stuff. We know what that is, don't we? That's just, now that
shows the work of the law written in our heart, an eye for an eye
and a tooth for a tooth. See, we believe that. Every man
born in the world believes it. Can't escape it. The work of
the law is written in their hearts. But you see, there is forgiveness
with God that he may be feared. Oh, that's a marvelous thing.
Causes men to fall down and worship him. There is forgiveness with
God. He is clothed with majesty. The
Lord is clothed with strength. He has strength. He triumphed
mightily over all his enemies, wherewith he hath girded himself. Now, man has not ever added one
thing to God. It's impossible. Because he's
the creator. He made all things according
to the good pleasure of his will, and it uses them according to
the good pleasure of his will, and directs all things according
to the same. And a man can't do a thing about
that. And I'm glad. You know, some
people, they get thinking about this election coming up, and
buddy, they thinking, man, we just gotta get Trump in there.
I mean, we gotta get him in there. Well, I'm gonna tell you this.
You know, I want everybody to go and vote, and vote in your
conscience, and I hope your conscience is telling you to vote for the
same one I'm going to. But I'm gonna tell you this.
Whether Trump gets in there or not, Our God's in the heavens. He
hath done what's every pleased, and He raises up kings and puts
down princes according to the good pleasure of His will. And
it's not going to, it may affect me outwardly as to what goes
on in the world and that sort of thing, but dear brethren,
it has no effect whatsoever. See, some people are all up in
arms, oh, if these other people get in there, you know, God is
just gonna be sent off somewhere. Well listen, God's going to be
right where He's always been. And it doesn't make any difference
who's in office or what they say or what policy they enact. Now we've been taught in the
Scriptures that we are to pray that the Lord might cause the
leaders to enable us to lead lives of quietness and peace.
And we do pray unto that end. But dear brethren, the Lord sometimes
is pleased to send hardship on His people through the leaders
that He gives them. But it's still the Lord. He clothed
Himself with strength. Some people will say, oh, well,
the Lord, you know, Biden got elected and it was because we
didn't pray enough. I mean, God couldn't, He couldn't
do it, you know. He could have done it. See, that's
the way they think about it. He could have done it. You know,
if enough people had just prayed, God could have done that, but
we didn't do it. We didn't pray, and so therefore,
we got what we got. Dear brethren, how foolish is
that? The Lord clothes Himself with strength. And He causes
all things to come together according to the good pleasures of His
will. Now, that's a glorious thing. And you know, what can
a man do but just say, praise God? I mean, what can a man do? I mean, there's nothing he can
boast in. What do we have that we have
not received? I mean, if you make it to the
polls to vote, how'd you get there? Because God caused you
to be able to breathe. He caused you to be able to pick
up the pen and read the paper and write or whatever. He closed
himself. The world also established that
it cannot be moved. This ought to hearten those that
worry about climate change. The world can't be moved. Now,
I know that some people would say, oh, you're wrong about that,
we can destroy the world. No, you can't destroy the world.
Now, if God ordains that the world be destroyed through the
hands of men, it will be, but it won't be men that destroyed
the world. Oh, what a glorious thing. I
mean, you know, the children of Israel went in to Jericho and they went around
the walls and blew the trumpets and the script says that the
walls fell down. Now, some people would say, well,
see there, they went in there and they did these things. They
had great faith and the wall came down. But the Lord brought
the walls down. That's right. Amen. According
to the good pleasure of His will. We give Him praise. But the world
is established that it cannot be moved. Now, what does that
mean? It just simply means that it doesn't mean that the Lord
made something that He couldn't destroy. It means he made something
that nobody else could destroy. And that's a glorious thing.
Now he put oil in the ground for a reason. Did he not? Now some people think that the
dinosaurs died and all that oil come up in the ground. That is
bull. I mean, you know, how many dinosaurs
do you think it would have took? And how many, how'd the oil get
a mile down in the ground? I mean, you know, it's so ridiculous. But you know, I think back in,
when I was a kid growing up and they taught us all that stuff
and I just believed it. But later on in life, I got to
think, well, how could that actually have been? I mean, that all that
could have took place. They call it fossil fuel. I don't
know, it's the fuel that God made. He put it there for a reason.
He put it there for the benefit of men. He put it there for the
glory of God. And you know what, let's not
say we are not to be wise in the use of such things as God
gives us. We're moderation in all things.
We need to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But this
psalm is not about all. It's not about the things that
the world's made out of, but it's talking about why the world
was made. And why the world was made was
for God's purpose, and it can't be moved from that. And God made
the world to bring glory to His name in the redemption of a people
in Jesus Christ. And it can't be moved, brethren.
It can't be changed. That is what the world's going
to renown unto. Thy throne is established of
old, thy ark from everlasting. He is indeed that eternal God. His throne is established. He's
reigning forever. And He has demonstrated it in
more than one way. The floods have lifted up, O
Lord. The floods have lifted up their
voice. The floods lift up their waves. Now, just speaking about
the natural creation, And speaking here of the fact that the world
has rebelled against God. Now, it didn't take him by surprise.
He didn't say, oh no, what's happened now? No, he created
the world to be just like it is. Now, a lot of people get
all worried about that. But dear brethren, if he didn't
make the world to be exactly like it is, how did it get to
be like it is? Because he works all things.
according to his good pleasure. Now, you know, men will have
to work that out in their own mind, how they think about it. But nonetheless, the fact remains
that he said, I make peace and create evil. I form the light
and I make the darkness. I, the Lord, do all these things.
He's not ashamed to take credit for what he's done. and all we
can do is fall down and worship him, but the floods have lifted
up, oh Lord. The floods. Now you know the
scripture says that when the enemy shall come in like a flood,
the Lord will lift up a standard against him. Now what is that
standard? but the Lord Jesus Christ. He
is that one who's been lifted up against the flood of this
world. And the floods of this world,
the wickedness of this world come in like a flood. I mean,
it would overwhelm us. I mean, if you look around you, The dark, what's it say? I'm
trying to recall the scripture. The dark places of the earth
are full of the habitations of cruelty. It's what the psalmist
says. The dark places of the earth
are full of the habitations of cruelty. Now, what does that
mean? Well, it just simply means that this world is a place where
men do not seek the betterment of one another. Now, I know that,
you know, that's supposedly the ideal, but the reality of the
matter is not that way. And you can see a little microcosm
of that in this political climate. I mean, Trump's not seeking the
betterment of Joe Biden, and Joe Biden's not seeking the betterment
of Trump, is he? They're seeking to really destroy
one another. Now, is that the way God, has
God called us to be like that? Our triumph's in Christ. I mean,
we speak of Christ. And then we let the chips fall
where they may. I mean, that's up to Him what
He does with those things. But brethren, we're not out to
destroy anybody. We leave the destruction in the
hand of Him. But the floods, the world, have lifted up their
voice. The floods lift up their waves
against the Lord. Now a little measure of that
is seen when he came to his disciples by night and they were rowing
out on the ship and they were frightened and they said, oh
man, you know, we're going to go down. But the Lord spoke to
the wind and the waves and he said, peace, be still. And it
was. Why? Because he made the waves.
And so just as surely as the floods lift up against the Lord,
the Lord says, be still when it's time. See, the Lord uses
the waves because He used the waves to cause the disciples
to call out to Him, did He not? Yes, they did. They called out
to Him because of the waves. So the waves were in the hand
of the Lord. But the Lord stilled the waves when the time came. The Lord on high is mightier
than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of
the sea. And he demonstrated that. You
know, I wonder often if the disciples, if their mind, and of course
many of them were taught, no doubt, the Psalms and the synagogues
and stuff, and if their mind might have gone back to this
passage of Scripture. on that night when the Lord stilled
those waves. And they said, what kind of a
man is this? See, they didn't have a full
understanding. But He demonstrated it, even as He does demonstrate
the same to us. And the troubles and trials and
heartaches of life come upon us. And every one of them is
ordained by Almighty God. And not a thing ever transpires
in your life that's not ordered by Almighty God. And not all
of them seem to be good to us, but the scripture says they all
work together for good. I mean, when you hit your finger
with a hammer, That's not good, is it? I mean, man, it'd be crazy
to say, man, that was good. No, that wasn't good, that was
bad. But God causes all things to work together for good, because
there's a good that will come out of that thing. Now, I might
not be able to tell you what it is, but nonetheless, God is
pleased to work in that fashion. Thy testimonies are very sure. Now that is really the basis
upon which our hope rests, is it not? That the testimonies
of God are sure. God who cannot lie promised that
those who believe in Jesus Christ shall not perish but have everlasting
life. Now that's a glorious promise.
Is it not? He promised to give us the kingdom. That's a glorious thing. Thy
testimonies are sure. Holiness, becometh thine house,
O Lord, forever. Now, what is holiness? Now, you
hear that term used a lot, and a lot of times what men mean
by that is that you don't smoke, and you don't chew tobacco, and
you don't go to the picture show, and you cut your hair a certain
way, and you do this, and you don't do that. And they say,
well, buddy, that's holiness. No, holiness, is being set apart
unto Jesus Christ. Paul said, I count all things
as done that I may win Christ. That's holiness. See, the Lord
said, Come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the
Lord. Now he didn't talk, that's not
talking about the outward thing. Now the outward things surely
follow, but I'll tell you this, I'd rather a man inwardly desire
to walk in the things of God than I had to try to jumpstart
it and get him to doing the things outwardly thinking that he's
making himself holy before Almighty God. You see, God cleanses men
from within. Paul said, such were some of
you, after he listed down all that. But he said it's in the
past tense, because you see, when God works works in a man's
heart, then all those other things will follow suit. And I don't
need to sit around and describe and define every step that you
ought to take in life. I mean, the Word of God is here. Jesus Christ is our example that
we should follow His steps. And that's the work of the Spirit
of God in us. And so holiness can only be found
in one place. That's Christ. I mean, you can
try as hard as you want to, to be holy and you won't be. But
when Christ makes you holy, see, being holy is to be set apart.
And that's what the Lord, the Scripture says, holiness becometh
that adorns the house of God. Why is that? Because God is holy.
What does that mean? It means He's set apart. See,
He dwells in the light to which no man can approach. He's inapproachable. He's invisible. You can't come
there had He not made a way for us to come into His presence.
We never could. We could have never seen Him
if He had not come and walked among us in the person of Jesus
Christ the righteous. Oh, what a glorious God we have.
Holiness becometh His house. If you don't believe it, just
look at the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Who knew no sin, neither was
guile found in His mouth. He was not just externally pure. I mean, the Pharisees accused
Him of being a winebibber. They said, he's hanging out over
here with all these drunkards and the harlots and all these
people. And what kind of a fellow is
he? Well, you see, the Lord was pure
from all of the wickedness that enters the hearts of men. He
had no corruption within him. So if you want to know what holiness
is, that's it. There's only one standard of
holiness. I know some denominations and
whatnot, they have these standards, you see, that you got to live
by. And these define whether or not you measure up to being
holy. Well, brethren, there's only
one standard that I have ever found in the scripture that defines
what holiness is, and it's Jesus Christ who was without sin. And He has become our sanctification. He has made us sanctified. We're set apart in Christ according
to His good pleasure.