Let's begin our service, opening
our Bibles to Isaiah chapter 52. Isaiah 52. As you're turning,
let me make this announcement, a matter for prayer. I found
out late this afternoon, Alberta Vance, Alberta's husband is Gary,
the pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Dingus, West Virginia. She
has been back and forth to the hospital in Charleston, I don't
know how many times, but today, They found that there is a mass
that has wrapped itself around her spine. And it is in such
a spot that there in Charleston, they don't have the ability to
even do a biopsy for it, much less surgery. So they are beginning
to look for a place that they can send her that's got the technology
and the ability to try to deal with this. So as the Lord enables
us, let's remember her in prayer. All right, Isaiah chapter 52.
We'll begin our reading in verse 7, read down through verse 10. How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth
peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation,
that saith unto Zion, thy God reigneth. 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.
Break forth into joy. Sing together, ye waste places
of Jerusalem. For the Lord hath comforted his
people. He hath redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord hath made bare his holy
arm in the eyes of all the nations. And all the ends of the earth
shall see the salvation of our God. We'll end our reading there. We'll turn to page 28. 28 and I read the book. Holy God, we praise Thy name. Lord of all, we bow before Thee. All on earth thy scepter claim,
All in heaven above adore thee, Infinite thy vast domain, Everlasting
is thy reign. Mark the loud celestial hymn
Angels' choirs above are raising Cherubim and Seraphim In unceasing
chorus praising fill the heavens with sweet accord. holy, holy Lord. Lo, the apostolic train joins
Thy sacred name to our Prophets swell the glad refrain, And the
white-robed martyrs follow. And from morn to sed of sun, Holy Father, Holy Son, Holy Spirit,
three we name Thee, while in essence only one. Undivided God, we claim Thee,
And, adoring, bend the knee While we sing our praise to Thee. Now turn a few pages over. One page to 32, 32. All praise to Him who reigns
above, in majesty supreme, who gave His Son for man to die. that he might then redeem. Blessed be the name, blessed
be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name, blessed
be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. His name above all names shall
stand, Exalted more and more, And God the Father's own right
hand, Where angel hosts adore. Blessed be the name, blessed
be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name, blessed
be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. Redeemer save If your friend
of men wants ruin by the pole, Thou hast devised salvation's
plan, For Thou hast died for all. Blessed be the name. Blessed
be the name. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name. Blessed be the name. Blessed be the name of the Lord. His name shall be the Counselor,
the mighty Prince of Peace, of all Earth's kingdoms conqueror,
whose reign shall Blessed be the name, blessed
be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name, blessed
be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. Soaking our Bibles now to Psalm
97. Psalm 97. Lord willing, next
Wednesday evening, we'll plan on observing the Lord's Table.
And tomorrow evening, Lord willing, I'll be preaching in Pikeville,
Kentucky for the congregation there at Zebulon. And Sunday,
both services at Danville. So I covered your prayers and
the travel and preaching. Sunday, Bob Coffee will be here
to bring the messages to us. I know you look forward to that.
All right, 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 round 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. They 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. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, which art in heaven,
holy and reverent, is your matchless name. And we bow before you as
the Lord of all the earth, thankful that thou art God over all, that
none can stay your hand or say unto you, what doest thou? We
bow thankfully that your sovereign in all things, that you will
accomplish your purpose. And how thankful we are. Human
words cannot express our thanksgiving that is your purpose to save
a sinful people. Father, how we thank you for
your mercy and your grace, your wisdom, your goodness, to find
a way to save sinners in justice, to enable you to be both just
and justifier. Father, we're thankful. And we
pray this evening that we've met together to worship you,
to worship your matchless name. Father, send your spirit upon
us, we pray. Enable us to have an hour of
true worship, to not just go through the motions of religion,
but Father, that you give us an hour of true heart worship. Enable us to hear of our Lord
Jesus Christ. as your word is open to us. Father,
let the name of your son be magnified. Enable me to rightly divide the
word of truth and to exalt Christ our Savior. And give your people
here a believing heart, a hearing ear. Enable us to leave here
tonight rejoicing in Christ our Savior. Father, we thank you
for all these little ones that you've given to us. And as we
watch them so quickly, grow and mature. Father, we pray that
you'd always watch over them, that you'd be with them, that
you'd not leave them to their own devices, but that you'd watch
over them, that you'd hedge them about and protect them. Father,
in your time, we pray it would please thee to reveal yourself
to them in mercy and grace. And Father, for your people who
are in a time of trouble, we pray for them. Pray for Alberta
and her family and that congregation. Father, give those who would
treat her the wisdom to solve this problem. Use them as an
instrument in your hand to heal her and restore her to health,
we pray. And others, there are so many, Father, who need you
especially. Father, heal and comfort the
hearts and the minds of your people. Deliver them when it's
your will. All these things we ask in that
name, which is above every name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen. Gracious Lord, incline Thine
ear, I request Thou safe to hear, Give me Christ, or else I die. Give me Christ, or else I die. Lord, deny me what Thou wilt. Only raise me up, my King. Suppliant at thy feet I lie. Give me Christ or else I die. Give me Christ or else I die. I'm all unholy. I'm all unclean. I am nothing
else but sin, On my mercy I rely. O give me Christ, or else I die. Give me Christ, or else I die. Thou dost freely save the lost,
Only in Thy grace I trust. With my earnest suit comply,
Give me Christ, or else I die. Give me Christ, or else I die. Thou hast promised to forgive
all who in thy Son believe. O give me Christ, or else I die. Give me Christ, or else I die. Father, dost thou seem to frown? Why take shelter in thy Son,
Jesus, to thy arms I fly? Save me, Lord, or else I die. Save me, Lord. May God deliver us from ever
approaching one of these surfaces and not see it as a matter of
life and death. You can meet Christ, or else
I die." That was a great line. Alright, if you would open your
Bibles again to Psalm 97. I titled the message this evening,
Rejoice! The Lord Reigns. Our Psalm begins
with a glorious statement, The Lord reigneth. Now that's the
foundation of the Gospel. The Lord reigneth. The Lord reigns
over everything, everywhere because of who he is. He's God. The Lord
reigns over all men and all events. There's not a speck of dust flies
through this room. God's not in control of it. The
Lord reigneth. Everything that happens in creation,
you know all it is? It's God's will being carried
out. God never reacts to anything that we do. God never changes
what he's going to do because of something we've done. He has
to react to it, you know. Men do what they do because the
sovereign willed for them to do it before time began. The
Lord reigns in the lives of men and all the events of history.
There's no such thing as random events happening to us. Events
happen to us because Almighty God willed them to happen before
creation. And the Lord reigns in salvation. If I had the ear of the religious
world today, everybody might have been with me till right
there. God reigns in salvation. God saves whom he will, when
he will, how he will. The Lord saves whom he will. God saves the people that he
chose to save. Salvation is not a choice that
we make. Salvation is a choice that God
makes. God saves when he will. Just like he did with the Apostle
Paul. When did Paul say God saved him? When did Paul say he was
saved? When it pleased God. When he would. God revealed his
Son in him and to him. Same thing he does for all of
his people. And the Lord saves his people how he will. He does it through the preaching
of the gospel, never through the preaching of a lie, through
the preaching of the gospel. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Now the Lord reigneth,
that's a fact. It's not to be debated, it's
just so. The Lord reigneth is not a fact that we use to try
to make the unbeliever angry. The Lord reigneth is cause for
rejoicing. The Psalmist says, the Lord reigneth,
let the earth rejoice. It is cause for rejoicing that
the Lord reigneth. And I want us to see five reasons
to rejoice in the Lord who reigns from our Psalm this evening.
Number one is this, rejoice because the sovereign Lord reigns to
save a multitude of people. Verse one, the Lord reigneth,
let the earth rejoice. Let the multitude of isles be
glad thereof. Now David, or I'm assuming David
wrote this, it doesn't say, but we think it was David. He says,
let the multitude of the islands be glad. Let people all over
the creation be glad. Let a multitude of people from
islands and countries and tribes and tongues, let them all rejoice
that the Lord reigneth. Because he reigns to save a people
out of every nation and kindred and tongue and people, then rejoice. Because if that's so, and it
is, then there's hope for a sinner like me. The Lord reigneth. He's
going to save a multitude of people. Let the islands, all
the nations, not just the Jews, all the nations. You know, our
race, our background, our culture, cannot make us unfit for salvation
in Christ. God's grace is greater than our
sin. And His grace is great enough
to overcome our culture, to overcome our sinful, rebellious background.
His grace is strong enough, powerful enough, great enough to overcome
our darkness and our ignorance and our unbelief. God has chosen
to save a people from every nation and every generation, and nothing
can stop God from saving them. because he reigns. Nothing can
stop God from finding them with his gospel and giving them faith
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ because the Lord God omnipotent
reigneth. He can't be stopped. So rejoice. People can be mad about God's
sovereignty if they want to. I'm going to rejoice about it
because God's sovereignty and salvation is the only way I could
be saved. I know that so. And if God saved
you, you know so for you too. I couldn't be saved any other
way. I never would have chose God, unless He chose me first.
I never would have loved God unless He loved me first. Salvation
is in God's hand. So it's His to give and it's
His to withhold. That's what sovereignty means.
And God in His sovereignty has willed to save a people. And
He's going to do it. He's not going to leave it up
to them to see if they'll decide to be saved, because that'll
never happen. Left to their own devices, they'll
never do that. Scripture says we will not, and it says we cannot
come to Christ, that we might be saved. We would never choose
to be saved on God's terms unless God gives us a new heart and
draws us to him through the preaching of the gospel. So rejoice. God reigneth. He rules to bring
about the salvation of the people that he chose and the people
for whom Christ died. And it's a multitude of people.
All right, number two, rejoice because you believe and you trust
God. If you believe God, it's because
he's given you faith, not because you found it in yourself to be
able to believe God. He gave you faith. So rejoice,
rejoice. I want to tell you, we're going
to be honest with each other. Sometimes that's going to be
easier said than done. To rejoice. Sometimes that's
going to be easier said than done. Look at what he says in
verse two. Clouds and darkness around about
him. Now God often hides himself behind
clouds and darkness. There's a couple of reasons for
that. Number one, because the sight of God with nothing between
would destroy us. No man can look on God and live.
And number two, God often hides himself in clouds and darkness
to show us we couldn't understand what he's doing if we saw anyway. We can't understand. Let me give
you a couple examples. When God gave the law at Sinai,
God was hidden on that mountain. Those clouds and darkness covered
the mountain, didn't they? And that showed us no one can
live. No one can see God's holiness
and God's glory and live. But that also showed us we don't
understand the purpose of God's law. The purpose of God's law
is not so we can earn a righteousness by keeping it. The purpose of
having God's law is not to tell the Philistines and the Malachites,
ha ha ha, we got the law and you don't. That's not the purpose
of the law. The purpose of God's law was
to show us our sinfulness. and to drive us to Christ. The
purpose of the law was to show us we've got no hope of keeping
the law. If we would be saved, Christ is the only hope we have.
That's the purpose of God's law. But we couldn't see that at Sinai,
could we? We could only see that when Christ
came and the clouds were lifted. God's glory appeared at the tabernacle
in a cloud. Sometimes it was a dark cloud.
And that showed us we cannot understand that that tabernacle
is a picture of Christ until Christ came and the cloud was
lifted. God is worshipped in Christ,
not in buildings made with men's hands, but in Christ. That's
who the tabernacle pictured. And then at Calvary, Christ suffered
and he died in darkness. The sun refused to shine. And
God did that to show us We just can't understand everything going
on there. And it wasn't for us anyway. This is a transaction
going on. The death of Christ, the sacrifice
of Christ is a transaction between the Father and the Son. We didn't
need to see it. It wasn't offered to us anyway.
It was a sacrifice offered to the Father. But we just can't
understand everything that was happening there. We can't understand
everything that's involved. with Christ being made sin and
how he put that sin away so that it does not exist anymore by
his blood and by his death. Now that's a mystery, isn't it? That's a mystery to us. Only
by faith can we believe that the sacrifice of Christ put our
sin away. It's the only way. Not by sight, by faith. And then
when Christ arose, You may never have thought about this before,
I didn't think about it until this week, when Christ arose. Do you know
he arose in darkness? When Mary came to the tomb, it
was still dark. He arose in darkness. I believe
that shows us we just can't understand everything that there is to know,
everything that's involved with Christ being raised again for
our justification. I know that's the evidence. Christ's
resurrection is the evidence. His sacrifice put away the sin
of his people. The father never would have raised him from the
dead unless that sin was gone. That's the evidence his sacrifice
justified his people. But here's the mystery. How can
my sin be put away? That's what justified is. Justified
means without sin. How can I be justified when all
I see myself doing is sinning? How can that be? Only by faith
can we believe. Christ arose as the evidence
of our justification. We only believe that by faith. It's not by sight. That's hidden
in darkness. And then we'll get right down
where we live, where many, many of our brothers and sisters are
living right now. In God's dealings with men, it
seems to me like he's always behind the clouds and the darkness. Now hang with me here because
I've got something to help you. God's hidden behind the clouds
and the darkness. We don't know what God's doing.
We can't see Him. That's true in our blessings
and that's true in our trials. We don't know what God's doing.
You say, well, why is this person over here blessed? We know they
couldn't have done anything to deserve it, could they? Why is
this person blessed and this person is in trial? And they
don't just have a hangnail, they're being crushed. You know, trial
and tribulation, the word used in Scripture often means a confining
place, a narrow place. They're being crushed. Doesn't
look to me like they did anything to deserve being crushed. I mean,
they're being crushed. How can that be? I've been in
this valley a long time. Why so long? Now I'll freely admit to you,
this is where we need to start, I don't know. I don't know. And
I would caution you to beware of anybody that thinks they know.
I'd just beware. Job had no idea in this world
what God was doing in his great trial, did he? He didn't have
the slightest idea. And his friends didn't either.
They had lots of ideas, but none of them were right, were they?
Job didn't know the first thing about God's conversation with
Satan. Not the first thing. All of that was a mystery to
Job. God's ways are past finding out. He's hidden behind the clouds
and the darkness. God does as He will. And He gives not account of any
of His matters to us. We couldn't understand if he
did. We really couldn't. All we're told to do is trust
him. Trust him. I don't have to see behind the
clouds in the darkness. I know who's there. I know who's
running this show. That's all I need to know. I
can trust him, even though I can't see him. We don't know why the
Lord is doing, or we don't know what He's doing, what the purpose
is. But we can trust Him who reigns over everything. Because
it's the Lord who's doing it. And that brings me to the third
thing. This is very closely tied to this. Rejoice. Because the
Sovereign Lord reigns. And He always does what is right. The Sovereign Lord cannot do
anything wrong. The end of verse two says, righteousness
and judgment are the habitation of his throne. That word habitation
means establishment or foundation. The Lord's throne, his reign
is established upon righteousness and it's established upon just
judgment. That's what the word judgment
there means. It means just judgment. Now here's the reason that we
can trust the Lord to reign. when we can't see what he's doing.
Everything he does is righteous. And the word means right. And
it also means prosperity. Everything the Lord does is right. And it's best. It will bring
about the spiritual prosperity of his people. Charles Pershing
said this, divine sovereignty is never tyrannical. Jehovah
is an autocrat, but he's not a despot. The Lord always does
what's right. And we need to remember this.
It's right because he does it. So it's right because he does
it. Then we can rejoice. The Lord's reign is founded upon
just judgment. He never makes a mistake. Spurgeon
also said this, God is too good to be unkind. And he's too wise
to be mistaken. And when we get a hold of this,
when we cannot trace his hand, we can trust his heart. Did you
get that? When we cannot trace his hand,
we can trust his heart. Because everything he does is
right. Everything. That's true with
his dealings with his enemies, with the unbeliever. When he
destroys them, he's right. Verse 3. A fire goeth before
him, and burneth up his enemies round about. Oh, God's long-suffering. God is long-suffering. Aren't
you thankful God's long-suffering? But when His long-suffering is
finished, and He arises in judgment, He's going to make quick work
of it. A fire's going to just destroy His enemies. And when
He does, the Lord never judges or destroys somebody without
a reason. Ever. It's always because of their
sin. It's always because of their rebellion. It's always because
of their refusal to believe. So they have no one to blame
but themselves. God's just when he does that.
But you know, God is also always right. He's just, righteous with
his dealings with his people. God uses his fire sometimes to
destroy his enemies. But there are other times he
uses his fire to bless his people. See, everything God does with
his people is a blessing to them. Even the fire. God uses his fire
to give his people light. Verse 4. His lightnings enlightened
the world. The earth saw and trembled. Now, lightning can destroy, but
it can also give light to see. God is hidden behind the cloud
and the darkness, isn't he? Well, we need to be given light
to see. Look over to Isaiah chapter 59.
Isaiah chapter 59. Verse 2, But your iniquities
have separated between you and your God, and your sins have
hid His face from you, that he will not hear. You know why we
can't see God? It's our own fault. It's because
of our sin. Our sin is a black cloud that's
blotted out to where we cannot see. Well, then the only way
we can ever see, God's got to give us light, doesn't he? He's
got to give us light in our darkness. Well, rejoice. The Lord reigneth. No one is in such darkness. God
can't give him light to see. Nobody is so blind God can't
make them see, because look at verse 1 of Isaiah 59. Behold,
the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither
his ear heavy that it cannot hear. There's no one in such
darkness that God cannot give them light. He gives his people
light to see him, to believe him, to follow him, to know the
way they should walk. If you look back in our text,
Psalm 97 verse 11, Light is sown for the righteous
and gladness for the upright in heart. God sows light. He plants light in the hearts
of his people. So they have light in the heart.
God sows light along the way. So we're not stumbling along
in our darkness, going our own way, but we're given light to
follow Christ and know the way that we should walk. Now, if
we have any light at all, God gave it. That's true. If we have
any light at all, God gave it. God is light and in Him is no
darkness at all. So we can rejoice if we have
light. It came from Him. But I bet you're like me. It
seems like the light that we have is flashes of light. Like the lightning. Just a flash. I don't know how it is with you. I can tell you how it is with
me. The light that I have is not a steady, constantly growing
light. There's flashes, and there's
darkness. And there's flashes, and there's
darkness. But the light that God gives,
and His lightnings, it's enough. It's enough light. It's enough
light to make us see, and the psalmist says, to tremble. To
tremble. To worship Him. To bow and to
worship Him. The light that God gives, it
may just be flashes. But if you're God's own, I can
tell you this, the light God gives you is enough for us to
walk by. It's enough for us to follow
Christ. It's enough for us to see Christ and trust Him and
follow Him. How many times did Brother Henry
tell us, if you want more light, walk in the light God's given
you first. Then He'll give you more light. See, this giving
of light is His business and this is what He does with His
fire and His lightnings. God also uses His fire. the fire
of His grace to melt the hearts of His people. Verse 5, the hills
melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence
of the Lord of the whole earth. Now, naturally our hearts are
like those great hills, mountains. They're mountains of sin, mountains
of rebellion, mountains of unbelief. All of us are born with a hard,
cold, dead heart that cannot be affected or changed by any
force. Even God does not change our
old stony heart. He says, I'll take it out of
you and give you a heart of flesh. God, when he talks about the
melting of our heart or the softening of our heart, it means when God
gives a new heart. Because our old heart cannot
believe God. Our old heart cannot love God. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. It's not subject to the law of
God. Neither indeed can it be. It'll always be cold and hard
and dead because that which is born of the flesh is flesh. All
it ever will be is cold, dead, hard, sinful flesh. That's why
our Lord said you must be born again. You must be given a new
heart. So God does just that. He gives His people a new heart
and a new birth. And that birth is done in the
warmth of God's grace. That He would grant life to a
dead sinner. God gives life, eternal life,
life that can never be lost to His people. That's so. Let's just talk about where we
live. The believer often feels cold
and dead and lifeless, unfeeling, unbending, and rebellious. And we think, could somebody,
knows God, could somebody that God's been gracious to feel this
cold and this dead and this numb, Can that be? Well, sooner or
later, God's going to send his fire to warm us up, to soften
us, to melt our heart, to make us conformable to his will. And
I can tell you how he does that. Now, there's some things I don't
know. There's some things I do. Let me tell you how God warms
up the hearts of his people, makes them conformable to his
will. It's in the public worship service. or the Gospels preached. That's exactly how. And the hearts
of God's people melt at His mere presence. All He's got to do
is be there. His presence. Well, where is
it that I know Christ will be present? In the public worship
service, where two or three are gathered together. If you want
to warm up, my advice to you is get closer to the fire. Get
closer to the warmth. of God's presence. All right,
fourthly, rejoice because the sovereign Lord reigns to save
his people from themselves, from their sin and their idolatry.
Verse six, 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. Now look over Romans chapter
one. Romans one is a good commentary on these verses. Romans one verse 18 for the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold the truth and unrighteousness because that which may be known
of God is manifest in them for God has showed it unto them.
For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world
are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made,
even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.
Because that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God,
neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and
their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise,
they became fools, and changed the glory of the corruptible
God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds,
and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore, God also gave
them up to uncleanness, through the lust of their own hearts,
to dishonor their own bodies between themselves, who changed
the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the
creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. Now, creation tells us that God
is. Creation tells us God's in the
heavens. And scripture puts an end to all controversy on that.
Scripture says, which cannot err, they're without excuse.
Nature tells us that God is. But men are so blinded by our
sin. You know what we do? We know
God is. So we make up an idol to worship. And the idol we make
up is always something that's created. Never the creator. You ever thought about that?
Idols are always something that's created. It's either it's a man,
it's a bird, it's whatever that fish thing is, people on the
back of their cars, whatever it is, it's always something
that's created. Our idol may be a stone statue. All of us come into this world
idolaters. That's the heart of every person. We come into this world as an
idolater. And our idol may be a a stone
statue. Our idol may be our own self.
It may be our free will, or it may be our own righteousness,
just good enough to get us into heaven. That's an idol of our
own making. It's us. We might even name our
idol Jesus. We might. We might name him Jesus. But he's never the Lord Jesus
Christ that's described in the Bible. It's the Jesus that we
want to make up that's unthreatening to us. That's who we make. That's
an idol who will not save because he can't save unless you let
him, unless you accept him. He can't save. He got no hands,
but your hands, he got no feet, but your feet. That's not the
Lord who reigns is it? No. And be careful of this one. Our
idol may be true doctrine. Our idol could be true doctrine.
without knowing Christ. Knowing doctrine doesn't save.
And you mark this down. Knowing doctrine doesn't save.
Knowing Christ saves. Knowing Christ saves. If our
idol is a true doctrine without a work of grace in the heart,
that's an idol of our imagination that cannot save. And we may
do some good works in the name of our idol, but it won't save
us. It won't take away our sin or
our guilt. And in the day of judgment, anyone who's not trusting
Christ alone will be confounded. And that word means guilty and
ashamed and shocked, shocked that their idol was not able
to save them. That's the way all of us come
into the world. Well, is there hope for me? That's
my heart. Is there hope for me? Yes, there
is. And the hope is this, the Lord reigneth. to save his people
from idolatry. Look at verse 8. Zion heard and
was glad. The daughters of Judah rejoiced
because of thy judgments, O Lord. For thou, Lord, art high above
all the earth. Thou art exalted above all gods.
The Lord reigns. He has power to give his people
ears of faith so that they believe Christ. The Lord is high above
all those idols. All those idols are going to
bow down. One day they'll all bow down. Just like Dagon. Remember
the Philistines took the ark and they set the ark in their
house they made for Dagon. They came in the morning and
Dagon has fallen down on his face to the ark. All those idols
are eventually going to do just that. And wherever his people
may be, God's going to bring them. He's going to find them
and He's going to bring them to where they bow before Him. How will he do it? I don't know. Covered in clouds and darkness,
isn't it? He's going to do it. One day down that country, Moab,
two Moabite idolatrous parents had a baby girl. They named her
Ruth. Happy day. Happy day. She's under
the power, darkness of this idolatry. How's that baby? It's going to
get clear back up to Jerusalem. How's that going to happen? It's
going to be covered in a lot of clouds and darkness, isn't
it? Famine, Elimelech making horrible
decisions to take his family from the house of bread, go down
there to Moab. Him and his sons both die. Naomi's left with nothing. She said, don't call me Naomi.
Call me Mara. I'm bitter. How will I ever get
back to Israel, to Jerusalem, to hear of the true and living
God? I'm going to go back. You girls stay here. You daughters-in-law,
you stay here. And Ruth said, I'm going with
you. I'm going with you. I'm ruined too. I'm going with
you. I'm going to have to go up there
and beg, but that's what I'm going to do. God brought her,
didn't He? And one day, She saw Boaz. That's going to happen to every
idolater, God's going to say. They're going to be under the
power of that idol. But somehow, some way, they're
going to be in the field gleaning. And they're going to see the
Lord Jesus Christ, the kinsman redeemer. God's going to deliver
him. He reigns over those idols. He's
going to bring his people out from under that. Let's rejoice! Isn't that cause for rejoicing? And then lastly, rejoice. Because
the sovereign Lord is the holiness of his people. Here's an interesting
commandment, verse 10. Ye that love the Lord hate evil. He preserveth the souls of his
saints, those who are holy. He delivereth them out of the
hand of the wicked. Now we know the Lord preserves the souls
of His saints. He's preserved them from all eternity when He
chose them and put them in Christ. He's always kept those people
and preserved them. And they're immortal. They're
absolutely immortal until they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And after they believe on Christ,
they're still immortal until God's journey for them is complete.
And He will deliver His people from the hand of the wicked.
Until His journey is done for them, He will deliver them. And
He tells us, the holy, the ye that love the Lord, hate evil. Well, we certainly should hate
evil, if God's been merciful to us, shouldn't we? If we love
the Lord, we must hate evil. How can you love evil and the
Lord? If you love the Lord, you've got to hate evil. But now again,
let's just get right down here where we live. Far too often,
we see ourselves loving sin, not holiness, don't we? Let's
be honest. Isn't that so? I've never seen myself do something
holy. Not one time. Well, does that
mean that I'm lost? Does that mean there's no hope
for me? Because I'm not holy. I don't hate evil. Is there any
hope for me? Yes, there is. There is. It's
in Christ who reigns. Look at verse 12. Rejoice in
the Lord, ye righteous, and give thanks at the remembrance of
His holiness. Of His holiness. The Lord is
our holiness. We don't make ourselves holy,
and we don't keep ourselves holy. The Lord is our holiness. So
rejoice. It's the Lord who reigns to make
His people holy in Him. The Lord is our righteousness. Jehovah Sidkenu. We're righteous
in him. So rejoice. The Lord reigns to
make his people righteous. And he reigns to ensure, to guarantee
that his sovereign will of their ultimate glorification is going
to be carried out. Couldn't be guaranteed unless
the Lord reigns. The Lord reigneth. Let the earth
rejoice. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you
for your word, how we thank you for this clear declaration of
who you are. You're the Lord God omnipotent
who reigneth. Oh, how thankful we are that
you reign upon your throne of grace, where sinful men and women,
boys and girls like we are, can come before the throne of grace.
to find forgiveness for our sin, to find grace and mercy to help
in time of need. How thankful we are that you
reign over every event of our lives. Our lives are not random
happenings, random atoms bouncing off each other in your creation,
but they're ordered in all things and sure because of your covenant
of grace, because you reign. And Father, we pray that you
cause us to rejoice, even in times of darkness and cloud. When we can't understand, enable
us to rejoice. We're never told to understand,
we're told to believe. If thou can't believe, all things
are possible. Cause us to believe and to rejoice,
even when we don't understand. Because when we get right down
to it, we don't understand anything. We don't understand how you could
be so merciful to sinners like us. We don't understand how you
could bless us so much with your presence and your gospel. Oh,
but we rejoice. Thank you, Lord, for all your
blessings to us. Thank you for ruling and reigning
over all things. It's in the precious name of
Christ, our Savior, we pray and give thanks. You would turn to 143. Stand as we sing, please. Rejoice, the Lord is King Your
Lord and King adore Rejoice, give thanks and sing and triumph
evermore Lift up your heart Lift up your voice, rejoice again,
I say, rejoice! Jesus the Savior reigns, the
God of truth and love. Above Lift up your heart Lift
up your voice Rejoice again I say Rejoice His kingdom cannot fail
He rules over earth and heaven. The keys of death and hell are
to our Jesus. In, lift up your heart. Lift up your voice, rejoice again,
I say rejoice, rejoice in glorious Oh, our Lord, the judge shall
come and take his servants up to their eternal home.