Well, again, it is a wonderful
thing to be here and that song says what I've tried to say this
morning. Jesus and his son washed in the blood of Christ. If you
would, turn with me to the book of 1 Chronicles and find chapter 29 We're going
to look at a few verses here. The title of the message is The
Supremacy of God. Although we don't find the word
supremacy in the scriptures, it's taught from cover to cover.
There is but one God. Men attempt to make gods of their
own hands, but the scripture bears out this book from cover
to cover, there is but one God. And that God is who men have
to deal with. Not the gods of their thoughts
or the gods of their imagination, but the God of this scripture,
the God of this Bible. The religion of our day, let
me start with opening this way. The religion of our day, as it
has been in time past, attempts to make the God of this scripture
not much more than a man. Mr. Luther said, your thoughts
of God are too human, and this charge can be laid to
every one of us. Every one of us. It is impossible for this flesh,
for any man in this flesh, to magnify the God of this Bible
as he ought to be magnified. It's impossible. We just don't
have the words, we don't have the understanding, we don't have
the ability. to magnify him as we ought to. We read in Psalms chapter 50
and verse 21, Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such as
one of you, and I'll reprove thee, I'll reprove thee. Meaning
in our day, imagine that the most high God is moved with sinless. Well, if I do this or if I do
that, God must smile upon me. They imagine that he is moved
with sentiments rather than by principle. God has principle. He's holy, holy, holy. They suppose that this thing
of omniscience, knowing all in the presence of all, is an item,
a fiction of man's imagination. I recently heard, I was visiting
a man home, one of my neighbors, and he had a TV program on. And
of course, it was a religious program at that time. And this well-known, well-renowned
religious preacher, he made this statement that shocked me even
for someone to even make it. He said, God created Satan. and gave him a free will and
let him run amok. For a man to say that on national
TV and men flock to him thousands and thousands and thousands.
Men today think that if God has formed any plan or any purpose,
it is like unto their own, constant subject to change. They openly declare that whatever
power God possesses must be restricted else it invades my free will. We live in a dangerous time. We live in a time that morality
has run amok. But let us never forget, our
God's in control. Our God's in control. The state
of our union, the state of our nation, the state of this world
is exactly where God has purposed it to be. We don't hear that
much. We don't hear that much. Let
men of our day lower this all-effectual tone which actually redeems everyone
for whom it was sent for. Everyone that Christ died for,
he will have. But they lower it to a mere remedy, which sin sick souls may use
if they feel a need to. I know Christ made atonement,
but I got to accept it. They water down. the invincible work of the Holy
Spirit, the offer, the offer of the gospel, which
sinners may accept or reject. The God that most men preach
in our day no more resembles the Most High God of the Holy
Scripture than a flickering light, a flickering candle, resembles the glory of a full-blown
sun at noon day. Most of us, I found myself a
while back caught at a funeral. I generally don't go, me and
my wife generally don't go to after the, whatever they call
that, after they have the services. This time I went and didn't know
they was having services and got caught in the middle of a
congregation. The house was full and a man got up and preached
for about 45 minutes about how that God is handcuffed until we unleashed him. With respect to the family, But this is not the gospel, and
this has no power of saying. And after that he finished what
he called preaching, what was laid here in this coffin. He gave about a 45 minute autopsy,
begging for people to come and do something for the A God whose will is resisted,
whose designs are frustrated, whose purposes are checkmated,
possesses no title of being good. And it is no fit object of worship. I'm thankful that the Lord has
revealed this unto me and call me out of the same situation
that they're in right now. Many of our family, our friends,
our relatives, our loved ones are in the same situation that
Brother Dan prayed this morning. Lord, deliver us. That's all
we can do for them. All we can do is present the
gospel to them. Our hands are tied as far as
saving them. Our hands, we have no ability
to save ourselves, much less anyone else. that God has. Our God is able to say to the
uttermost all that come unto him by Jesus Christ. He is the
God of supremacy. He is a God like unto no other
God. He says, has not the power, or
has not the potter come out over the cloak that maketh one vessel under
honor and another under dishonor. And men today preach and tell
sinners, won't you let God have your way in your life. He's knocking
on your door. All you got to do is open up
to him. Several years ago, my dad visited the congregation
that I was in at that time. And he sat next to the back. And one of the people that was
sitting with him told me this later, down the road. He stood up at the end of the
service. They told me he got the hold
of the back of the bench that was in front of him. And he squeezed
that bench, squeezed that bench to his neck and became white.
And he told them he was resisting God. Resisting God? We're in a dangerous situation.
We're in a dangerous state of time. Let us read here what the scripture
says concerning our God. 1 Chronicles 29 And let's go to verse 10. This is the way that we are to
worship. This is the message that we are to proclaim. 1 Chronicles
29, verse 10. Therefore David blessed the Lord
before all the congregation, and David said, Blessed be thou,
O Lord God of Israel, our father. forever and ever. Thine, O Lord,
is the greatness. Listen how David explains our
God. Listen how David describes our
God. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness,
the power, and the glory, the victory, and the majesty for
all that is in the heavens and in the earth is Thine. Thine
is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all.
Both riches and honors come of thee. Thou reignest over all,
and in thine hand is power and might, and in thine hand is to
make great and to give strength unto all. Now therefore, O Lord,
now therefore, our God, we thank thee and praise thy glorious
name. Thou reignest over all, now and
forever. When we are shaken by the events
of this life, when we are shaken by the events of our economy,
when we are shaken by the events of the world, the things taking
place in our world, let us remember, Thou reignest. Thou reignest
now and forever. This is the supremacy of our
God. He reigneth over all. He ruleth. He ruleth in the realms of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay
His hand nor say unto Him, what doest thou? They are so powerless. They are so powerless that the
psalm says in Psalm chapter two and verse two, the kings of the
earth set themselves. And the rulers take counsel together
against his Christ and against his anointing saying, let us
break your bands asunder and cast away their cords from us.
We will not have this man reign over us. This is not who we want
to hear. We want to hear of a God that
is able to give us riches and to lift us up here and to lift
us up there in economy and the natural state of man. This is
what God says. He that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh, the Lord shall have him in direction. They can do nothing. The absolute
universe. He is absolute and he rules the
whole universe. His power is seen in this book
from cover to cover. His ability to save is seen from
cover to cover. His ability to send forth His
Son, the only begotten of the Father, into the world to save
sinners such as you and I are taught from cover to cover. When
the old priest offered up these sacrifices in the Old Testament
Scriptures, it was pointing to that one supreme sacrifice that
would come and take away the sins of the world. Thou reignest. Oh, thou reignest, O God. Let
us magnify Thy name. Let us have a heart. Let us have
a desire. Let us have an understanding
that will lift up His name and put all men into dust. When this
gospel is sent forth in the power of the Holy Spirit, it's what
it does. It magnifies the name of Christ. Brother Frank called me and I
talked to him at Kingsport a few days later. He asked me would
I come and take care of his services. I'm thankful that he did. I'm thankful that he allowed
me to come. I started looking for something
that would comfort God's people's heart. And we have a tendency
to do this. When we're called into a different
congregation or another congregation, we want to bring something that
would uplift people, to comfort their hearts. We start reading in Genesis chapter
1. If you preach the gospel to God's people, it will uplift
their hearts. It's simple. It's simple. Preach the gospel. It will uplift
their hearts. It will edify them. It will comfort
them. It will strengthen them. It will
encourage them, and it will cause them to look to Christ more often,
more sincerely, and more affectionately. King Jehoshaphat. stood in the
congregation of Judah and Jerusalem, and in the house of the Lord.
And we find this in 2 Chronicles 20, verse 6. And said, O Lord,
O Lord God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? And rulest not thou over all
the kingdoms of heathen? And in thine hand, and in thy
power, so that none is able to withstand thee? Are not thou
our God? Do we not serve this God? Do
we not desire to worship this God who rules and reigns and
directs all things? Who did drive us out of the inhabitants
of this land before thy people Israel and gave it to the emperor
Caesar of Abraham? You think, as the children of
Israel came into this barren wilderness, God went before them, preparing,
preparing, preparing. The children of Israel had not
some great army to defeat the Canaanites and the Jebusites
and this and that. God did this. God did this. And He opened the door and said,
it's yours. Take it. I have fought the battle for
you. It's yours. He does the same thing in our
hearts today. He does the same thing in our
life today. He wins the battle. Victory is his. He is victorious
over death, hell, and the grave. What brings our souls and our
hearts and our minds down? This thing of sin that so does
easily ruin us. That does so easily affect us.
So look not unto yourselves, but look to Christ. He has won
the victory in my place, in my stead, and in my room. It's not
the warfare that I fight. It's the victory that He has
won. It's not the battle that I go through. It is the victory
that He has established for me and given unto me. I have the
victory and I shall be with Him forever. I shall be made like
Him. and I shall see him as he is. None is able to withstand thee,
O Lord. This is our God that we preach.
Before him, men that we call great, leaders of our country
and this and that, before him, they're no more than grasshoppers.
They're nothing. There are small dust in the balance
that he can so easily remove. Isaiah said in Isaiah chapter
40 and verse 15, behold the nations are as a drop of a bucket and
are counted as a small dust of the balance. They're nothing
compared to the supremacy of our God. For my soul, just think
of the greatness of our God. And then to think, He understands. I use this song, I use it often. I'm gonna read you two verses
of How Can It Be. I used it in the first service
where I said something, it's on page 67. He says, O Savior, as mine eyes
behold the wonders of thy might and hope, the heavens and glorious
lights are raised for the vast creation thou hast made. Yet
to think thou lovest me, my heart cries out to thee. To think of
this great God, ruling over heaven, ruling all things, over all the
counsel of all the nations of all the world. He says, there's
nothing more than a small dust on the bottom. And then he turned
to his eye, the look of a sinner such as I. How can it be, how
can it be, was ever a grace so full and full, from heights of
bliss, from bliss of heights of woe, in loving kindness now
be done. and sin and shame to rescue me,
O love divine, how can it be? Only a great God can supply a great salvation
for great sinners. Only a God of unspeakable power,
unspeakable might could, I want to say create a plan, but that's
not the right word. to purpose, to purpose. To send His Son, made in the
likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin's flesh. Who but God could imagine this?
Who but a great God could purpose this? And then, who but a great
God could bring this to pass? This is the reason that it cringes
our souls and our spirits to hear men Belittle our God. Belittle the God that says, I
am God and besides me there is none else. And men stand and
tell other men that they have the power, the right and the
ability to reject what God does. Why don't God just strike them
down? Because it is a long suffering. Job learned something about this,
of the supremacy of God, and Job said in Job 23 and verse
13, that he is in one mind and who can change. And what his
soul desireth, even that he did. He saw fit, for his own purpose
sake, for his own love sake, for his own decree sake, He saw
fit to elect the people before the foundation of the world.
I don't understand these things, but this is God's will. It's
taught from cover to cover in this book. Men reject this thing
of predestination. They reject this thing of election.
They reject this blood atonement, but it does not affect God one
bit, whether I believe it or whether I do not. It does not
affect Him. He said, I have spoken it, I
will also bring it to pass. So he chose a people somewhere
back there before time began. I don't know where it is at.
The scripture says before the foundation of the world. And
in time, in time, he chose to bring this people to hear the
gospel. In time, he sent his son to be
a propitiation for our sins, a mercy so that we look to Christ
by faith and we say, there my sins are punished. There my sins
have been dealt with. There my sins have been accomplished
and satisfied. There my sins have been paid
for. And now I am free. Free from the law, oh happy condition. Jesus has bled and there is permission. This is the only way. And the
only wise God purposed for this to come about this way. And he
brought all things together to do it, to establish it, to satisfy
it. Oh my soul, God as a scripture
is not a make-believe old man upstairs. It's not something
that we put on the front of our cars as a co-pilot. He is King
of kings and Lord of lords. And besides Him, there is nothing. Without Him, there's nothing.
Without Him, there's absolute darkness, pitch black, nothing. No air, no humidity, no nothing. Without Him, nothing. Whatever nothing is, without
Him it is. We read in Job chapter 43 and
verse 1, Then Job answered the Lord and said, I know that thou
can do everything, and that no thought can be withheld from
God. No thought. The God of man's imagination
cannot see the thoughts. All they can see is what they
do or what they don't do. But this God, the God of Holy
Scripture, sees the intent of the plan. sees the very thought
that enters our mind. All that he has designed to do,
he did. All that he has decreed, he performed. David said, but our God is in
heaven, and he hath, H-A-T-H, that means he did it. He hath
done whatsoever he hath pleased. Know therefore this day, and
consider in thy heart that the Lord, he is God in heaven, above
and upon the earth beneath. This is the reason that we insist
on teaching and preaching the supremacy of God. Not a God that
wants to and can't, but a God that purposes and does. God is supreme. over the works
of his hand and are shown throughout all the scriptures. All things,
all material, all creatures, all men, all beasts, all birds,
all things perform their master's bidding. He said, now wait a
minute. Sin in our day has run amok.
Men have got worse and worse and worse. Yeah, they have. And
they will continue to. as long as this world is sustained. They will continue to get worse
and worse and worse. We are on a downward trend from
the time that we came forth in the beginning. But just listen
to a few things that God did to show His supremacy. In Exodus chapter 14, at His
pleasure, the Red Sea divided And the water stood up to the
wall at his pleasure. At his pleasure. In Numbers chapter
14, at his pleasure, the earth opened her mouth and guilty sinners,
guilty sinners went down alive into a pit. On another occasion, Isaiah records
it in the book of Isaiah chapter 38, that the sun stood still. This is our God. This is our
God. The one that we serve with whole
heart, mind, soul, and spirit. Another place, Isaiah said the
sun went backward 10 degrees. I've never seen it do that. Isaiah
said it happened. At God's pleasure, he turned
the sun back 10 degrees. To show his supremacy, He used
ravens, what I believe we call crows today, to feed Elijah. He is not this God, the God of
supremacy, a God of holy scripture, a God of all power, might, glory,
and praise. In 2 Kings 6, he may learn to float. That's
impossible. When David was cast into the
lion's den, he shut their mouths. David walked around in the midst
of them. Do you remember the three Hebrew
children? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? cast them into the fiery furnace.
He heated the fiery furnace, what, seven times or ten times
hotter than it was, to the point that even the men that take up
these three Hebrew children, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
they brought them close enough to throw them into the fire.
The fire consumed them. The heat was so firm. Then the
king walked up, looked down into this fiery furnace, and he's
asked his servants, he said, did not we cast three men into
the fiery furnace? And they say, yay, Lord. He said,
I see four. And one of them is likened to
the son of God. Is anything too hard for our
God? But to thank him, thanks be to God. This is the God that
we teach. This is the God that is preached
in this congregation. small congregation that is set
out by itself as we are in Denver. Paul Mahan, I talked to him a
few weeks ago at King Fork. One of them, he introduced me
and told someone that I'm not sure who it was, where I was
from. And the man said, well, where is Denver? And I looked
at him, I said, you can't get there from here. I might just
send But oh, let me get that. God is a part of Christ, a part
of people that worship Him. What a great God. Again, we see the supremacy of
God. We read in Exodus chapter 34,
three times a year, all the male children or all the male men
of Israel was required to go up to Jerusalem. And they were
required to go up there and to worship God three times a year.
Now these Israelites lived amongst the people that hated them. The
Canaanites and the Jebusites and all these other high types
and all these other types. They hated them because they
came in and possessed their land. But every year, three times a
year, all the male men of Israel left their home, left their families,
left their goods, and left everything they had behind and took this
journey up to worship their God. Now, this was not a five-minute
journey. They didn't jump in a vehicle
and drive. They walked or rode camels or
rode asses. And it was a long treacherous
journey. Now, what kept these Canaanites and all these other
enemies around them from coming in and taking their women, taking
their children, taking their possessions? Listen to what God
says in Exodus chapter 34 and verse 23. He says, thrice in
a year shall all your men, children appear before the Lord, the God
of Israel. and I will cast out the nation
before thee and enlarge thy borders. Neither shall any man desire
thy land. God work within the hearts of
these rebels. God work within the hearts of
these enemies that they never even desired to come in and take
the land. Neither shall any man desire
thy land when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy
God thrice in the year. No wonder, oh no wonder, the
writer of the book of Proverbs says the king's heart is in his
hand and as a river of water he turneth it wheresoever he
will. We read of the absolute universal
supremacy of our God, both in Old Testament and New Testament
scriptures. We read in Ephesians 1, verse
11, that God worketh all things after the counsel of his own
will. Is it any wonder Paul said, for of him, and through him,
and to him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen. that they are free moral agents
with a free will, a free mind, a free heart, and they are at
liberty to do whatsoever they will. But James says, go to now. We that say today or tomorrow
we will go in such a city and continue there a year and buy
and sell and get gain, he says, for as we know not what we shall
do on tomorrow. For what is your life? It is
even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes
away. The life that we have in this flesh is a vapor. One small
disease can snuff it out like that. One small breath of air
may be your last. He says, for thou art the same.
If the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that. Oh, this
is where we find our rest of our souls. Know that God is working
all things for my good. Knowing that God is in control
of everything around me, everything about me, and everything that
pertaineth to me. What was it the writer said?
He will perfect that which pertaineth unto me. He will perfect that
which concerneth me. This is our hope. This is our
rest. Our lives are neither a product
of blind fate nor a result of chance, but every detail of our
lives was ordained from all eternity and is now ordered by the living
and reigning God. He rules and reigns. This is
the supremacy of our God. Does not this comfort us? Does
not this give us peace to know that he is working together for
our good? Everything that he has purposed,
he will bring to pass. For whom he did forego, he did
also predestinate, predetermine their destination. Don't be afraid
of this word. Don't shy from it because other
men don't believe it. He predetermined our destination,
that we are to be the sons of God and that we are to be made
like unto the Son of God. To be conformed to the image
of His Son, that we might be the firstborn among many brothers.
Moreover, he goes one step farther here. He said He predestinated
us to be conformed to the image of Son. But then moreover, whom
He did predestinate, how'd He do this? He called them. And
whom He called, then He justified. And whom He justified, then He
also glorified. We don't read anywhere in this
where it says He threw this thing out there for chance. He purposed
these things. and he saw fit to bring him to
pass. What shall we say to these things?
Paul said, if God be for us, who can be against us? Come before
him. He sent forth his son. He that
spared not his son. This is how that he's for us.
He spared not his own son, but delivered him up. How shall he
not with him freely give us all things? So who's going to lay
anything in charge of God's work? It's God that justifies it. It's
Christ that does. Yea, brethren, it is written
again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also liveth
to make intercessions for us. This is God's work. Everything
that he does, he does for his people. Everything that he accomplishes,
he accomplishes on behalf of his people to bring them unto
glory. Who shall separate us from the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus? And he goes down through
this whole list. I've had a funeral here recently
and the man said, well, I know that the scripture says nobody
can separate me from the love of God. He said, but I can myself.
I can choose to walk away if I want to. He never was in the love of God
to start with, if that's your friend. I am his and he is mine. Solomon said in Proverbs chapter
16 verse 9, a man's heart devises his way, but the Lord directs his steps.
God directs his steps. God is in control and he is working
all things, all things for my good and for his good. What comfort
to know that the God of supreme justice, supreme satisfaction,
supreme holiness, supreme righteousness, whatever you want to call Him,
He is God and He worked all things for my good. What comfort, what
assurance, what strength this should give to everybody. David
said, my time are in thy hand. Knowing this, let us rest. Let
us rest and be there. Wait for Him patiently. Wait
for Him to come. If He don't come today, let's
look for Him tomorrow. If He don't come on tomorrow,
let's look for Him the next day. He's coming. He's coming. He
will come and He will receive us unto Himself. And how this
is going to take place, I don't know. But I know what the Scripture
says. He says, we shall see him as
he is, for we shall be made like him. Whatever that is, ever how
God pleased to do, it tickled me to do. I hope this is helpful
to you. Thank you for your attention.
Thank you for allowing me to be here.