In the book of Joel, there's
a book called Hosea. I'd like you to turn to the book
of Hosea, chapter 13. Hosea, chapter 13. I'd like to read verse 9, 10, and
11. Hosea chapter 13. O Israel, thou hast destroyed
thyself, but in me is thine help. I will be thy king. Where is
any other that may save thee in all thy cities? And thy judges,
of whom thou saidest, Give me a king and princesses? Gave thee a king in mine anger
and took him away in my wrath I Want to speak this morning
out of these verses here primarily verse 10 I We want to bring and
introduce to you our subject here out of this 10th verse.
First of all, we'll have a word to say about the weakness of
nature, which we find here in verse 10, the last part of the
verse, the very last part, where it says, give me a king, give
me a king. And secondly, we'll have a few
things to say about the answer of grace, which we find in the
first phrase of verse 10, I will be thy king. And then we'll turn
to Psalm 44 in verse 4, where we'll talk about the acknowledgement
of faith where the psalmist said, thou art my king. Thou art my
king, the acknowledgement of faith. So first of all, we want
to talk a little bit about this verse of scripture here. Before
I get into the subject, let me say that I primarily this morning
want to speak upon the privilege that we have of Christ being
our king. I want to talk about the privilege
that we have upon the graciousness of our Lord Jesus Christ in allowing
Himself to be our King and permitting us to become His subjects. And
my purpose at this time is not so much to talk about the demands
that's set forth in the word of God as to that we ought to
allow him to be our king, but to the fact that we have this
great declaration here where he said, I will be thy king. The Bible does bid us to kiss
the sun and accept him as our king, but then this gracious
declaration this delightful declaration here in our text where it says,
I will be their king. It's always interesting, I think,
to trace a river or a creek back to its source. Many, many times
we find that the water in a stream flows from high up in the hills
or high up in the mountains, and when we begin to trace back
This certain practical subjects that we find in the word of God
such as the one we're talking about here today We soon find
that this subject of course springs out from the eternal hills it
comes from the our great God, this truth of Him being willing
to be our King and allowing us to be His subjects. This to me
is very wonderful. Now here in this text this morning,
in the book of Hosea, our brother read to us out of the book of
Samuel, chapter 8, where we see where that the people of God
When Samuel's sons began to judge Israel, and they turned aside
perverted judgment and became guilty of judging for profit,
that the people cried out they wanted a king. They wanted to
be like other nations. Now this bothered Samuel a great
deal. And Samuel went to the Lord, and the Lord said, Samuel,
you just give them what they want, because they're not rejecting
you, they're rejecting me. And this didn't just start with
your sons being perverting judgment, and they're blaming your sons,
and his sons were guilty, but that wasn't where it started,
ever since I brought them out of Egypt. They've been turning
aside from me and following false gods and so on and so forth.
And so they wanted a king. And the Lord said to Samuel,
you tell them what that's going to involve. You tell them how
much that's going to cost them. And when they rejected me as
their king, and they want you to set them up a king, tell them
what it's going to cost in everyday expense. And Samuel did that. And yet the people said, we'll
have a king. We'll have a king. Give us a
king. We want a king. And so here in
our text this morning, let's talk a little bit about give
me a king. Give me a king. I think first
of all that we are to consider this as the need of nature. The need of fallen nature. Give me a king. Now man was once
happy in Eden. because God was his king in the
Garden of Eden before he fell and cast off his allegiance to
God and became a rebel and a traitor to Almighty God when ever since
that time man has morally and spiritually needed a king. And the deep groaning of the
natural man is, give me a king. Give me a king. I'm weak, and
I know that I'm weak. Now, notice this, that this is
the cry, really, of weakness. Man has fallen. Man has a depraved
nature. Man is not able. He doesn't have
the strength or the ability to guide himself. He doesn't have
the ability to rule in his own life. He thinks he can. but he
doesn't have the ability to do that. And there are times when
he's made sensible to his weaknesses and man finds in himself that
he's a poor puny creature and he feels that he wants to look
up to somebody that is greater, somebody that is stronger, somebody
that is wiser, and somebody that is more enduring than himself. Now you know there are some plants,
and man has this tendency to want to, as it were, to cling
to something or to twine itself around something that is stronger
than he is. And it's kind of like some plants.
I remember back east when I was a boy, how that the morning glory
vines would seek out the corn stalks and wrap themselves around
a corn stalk because if it was If it was left lying on the ground,
it would get wet, moisture would soon mold its leaves, it wouldn't
make any progress. But if it could find a strong
corn stalk to wind and twine itself around, it would just
go clear to the top, above the tassel, and maybe even go clear
over to the next row. And that's the way man is. And
also, we used to plant beans in the corn field, and plant
them Kentucky Wonder beans. And we'd go out after the corn
was up about two feet high, and we would plant some beans right
beside the corn stalks. And those beans had runners on
them. And the beans would come up and the runners would go around
the corn stalks and then you'd go out there when them beans
matured and you'd be picking them Kentucky Wonder beans off
of those corn stalks because they used them for something
to twine themselves and something to cling to. Well, this is human
nature. It's human nature. It's a trailing
thing. It's a climbing thing. It's a
clinging thing. And in some people, this, beloved,
can be, I think, a tendency that is a great source of danger and
sorrow to them. because they have this desire
to cling to something, and they go out and they cling to objects
that are wrong for them. They cling to objects for their
love and trust, and consequently they are betrayed and they're
disappointed. And they sadly learn the meaning of that text
over there in the book of Ezekiel where it says, Cursed be the
man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his harm, and whose
heart departeth from the Lord. That's the result, beloved, of
clinging, this clinging tendency, when it is wrongly used. I mean,
when somebody doesn't know the Lord, and when somebody doesn't
know Christ, and somebody's not leaning on the Lord for wisdom
and strength and grace and guidance, and they're looking to other
things and looking to other people. Man is weak, as we said earlier,
and he knows this weakness, and He cries out, give me a king. Give me somebody to cling to.
Give me something, someone to guide me, direct me, and govern
me, and to rule over me. Man is made to be governed, and
he wants somebody to take care of him, and somebody that they
can lean on. And this is man in his weakness. And this is a cry of weakness,
I say, and it's also the sigh of distress. In the ninth verse
of this chapter, we read how it says, O Israel, thou hast
destroyed thyself. Here's the people that had destroyed
themselves. And these people were in a terrible
fix. And the Lord said, I'll be thy
king. And beloved, you can see here the connection in this passage,
how that the people having destroyed themselves through their weakness
and through their frailty and through their sinfulness as a
people, the Lord coming and saying, well, I'll be your king. When
a man feels that he's destroyed himself and that he's brought
himself down to destruction by sin and his folly, Then he cries,
give me a king. Once he's ruined himself, once
he comes to the place where he's in a desperate state, where he's
in a very difficult state, where he doesn't have the ability or
the means to go back and to redo things, and he doesn't have the
capital to start again. He has no ability in and of himself. He sighs out. Oh, give me a king. Now, beloved, when a man or woman,
boy or girl, when their soul is really convinced of sin, and
when they're made to see, when they're brought under the righteous
sentence of God's holy law, and they see that they're desperately
lost, and that they cannot ever rectify all of those things that
are wrong in their lives, and as it were, they're brought before
God in judgment in their mind, They cry out, oh that somebody
could help me, that somebody could come and deliver me. But we know that when people
get into that state, they often have this craving for a king. They want a king and also this
sets them up. as it were, for these false religionists
that are running around over the country saying, I can help
you, I'm ordained of God to rescue you from destruction, and they
begin to feed those people on religion. They begin to feed
them on false doctrine and false teaching and make promises to
those people that are not according to the word of God, to begin
to heal them, but not with the healing, that the scripture speaks
of, and they begin to say to them, peace, peace, when there
is no peace. These people need God to be their
king. They don't need a religionist.
They don't need a priest. They don't need somebody to come
along with a bunch of forms and ceremonies. They don't need somebody
to come along with religious practices and duties, do this
and do this and do that. They don't need that. They need
God to be their king, and they fall because they have this desire
to have somebody to help them, somebody to meet their needs,
somebody to bear their load, and they fall into false religion. Many people do, and many people
are willing. I've seen it over and over, and
you have too, to trust anything. Man will believe a lie long before
he'll believe the truth. Now listen, I want to make this
clear to you that the Lord has sent his servants out to preach
the gospel. And the gospel conveys help.
The gospel conveys light and reveals the power of God to those
who believe. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God. It's the
dynamite of God unto everyone that believes. Unto the Jew first
and also unto the Greek, because therein In the gospel is the
righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is
written, that just shall live by faith. Romans 1, 16 through
17. And so, beloved, the gospel is
preached by those whom God has bitten to go out and preach.
And we direct men and women to Christ, and those who believe
on Him, beloved, shall have Christ to be their King. Christ will
indeed take up their case, and Christ will be King unto them. Now I remind you that there is
every man this craving which makes him long for somebody to
rescue him from destruction. And the mercy is this, that God
in Jesus Christ has set forth to us Jesus to be prophet, Jesus
to be priest, and Jesus to be king. He's everything that a
sinner needs. Christ is everything that you
need this morning. In your situation, you say, well,
I've destroyed myself, preacher. Well, the Lord said, I'll be
their king, and he set forth Christ to be your king and to
be everything to you that you need. is your prophet to reveal
to us the mind of God. Jesus will reveal to us. He'll
tell us what to do. Jesus will make it clear to us
what we must do and how we must go from here on. The blessed
thing about the Lord Jesus Christ when he comes into the life of
the poor sinner. is that he turns that sinner
around and starts him from the very place where he meets him
and begins to bless him and lead him and direct him in the way.
Not only is he prophet to reveal the mind of God to us, but he's
priest to cleanse us by his own blood and to make us acceptable
unto the Father. The Lord Jesus is the offering
and he's the one that made the offering and he's the one who
gave the atonement that would reconcile us unto God. He bore our sin in His own body
on the tree, that He might bring us unto God, that He might bring
us into acceptance with God. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
is our priest. What are you looking for in religion? You say, well, I just kind of
like to have a priest. Well, beloved, the people of
God have one. And that priest is the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is the high priest. He's the
great high priest to the Lord's people. So the Lord Jesus is
prophet, priest, and he is king. And to be king means for him
to rule us. and for him to control us, and
for him to bring us into conformity to the will of God, to the mind
of God. For us each day, as we live out
our days in this life, to have him as one who would direct our
affairs. Give me a king, one who is wise
enough, strong enough, and willing enough to help my soul in its
greatest extremity. May the Lord be pleased this
morning to give the cry to your heart because you are weak and
because you are in a state of distress if you're outside of
Christ. If you're yet in a state of nature,
yet rebelling against God and His truth, my friend, you need
a king. You need a king, and that king
is the Lord Jesus Christ. And then I think that oftentimes
this is the result of experience. This cry, give us the king. I
said it was a result of our weakness, first of all, and then secondly
of our being in a state of distress. And then thirdly, it's the result
of our having some experience, or having been put in the school
of hard knocks, or having gotten ourselves into some situations
where we can describe it best by saying that we're between
a rock and a hard place, and we have learned by experience
that we cannot trust ourselves. And the man who trusteth, the
Bible says, in his own heart is a fool. And many, many times
God must bring us or allow us to go to the place where we discover
ourselves to be fools before we'll cry out, give me a king,
give me a king. Well, how many a man has made
shipwreck of his life and only discovered when he's upon the
rocks that he has ruined himself totally. Oh, that some strength
greater than my own, a man would say, would have saved me from
this ruin. Oh, that something would have
got a hold of me before now. Before I would have had to went
through all I went through. Before my situation had decayed
to where it is now. Oh, that somebody would have
just reached down and got a hold of me and rescued me from my
ruin. Here in this 10th verse in Hosea
13, he says, I'll be thy king. Where is any other that may save
thee in all thy cities and thy judges of whom thou saidest,
give me a king and princesses? And so, beloved, where is there
any other? Where is there any other who can reach down and
save us out of our ruin? Well, beloved, there's times
when we find ourself so in need, so desperately in need of a king,
and especially it's going to be true. I'm talking about finding
yourself in difficult positions where that experience drives
you to say, give me a king. Beloved, when we come to die,
when we come down to the very end of our way, when we're approaching
the time, when we're about ready to change worlds, leave this
world and go off into the next. It's a very sobering and serious
thing, and let people make what light they want of death. But
it's a very sober thing to die, a very serious thing to die.
And when you come down to the end, listen to me now, you're
going to say, give me a king. one who can fight that last enemy
for me, one who can ensure my safety when I pass through the
valley of the shadow of death. Give me somebody in this hour
of my departure from this world, when I'm going out, as it were,
into the unknown, when I'm leaving this world and going out. Unto
that eternal world give me somebody that can fight this last enemy
and that can deliver me Safely over so beloved listen I think
that when we come in to these kind of positions, ready to die,
sickened to death, the doctors said, it's terminal, you're going
to die. We're going to say in our hearts,
give me a king. If you never said it before,
you will say it then. I want somebody, I want somebody
that's strong enough to deal with my situation. And then I
think too, sometime when we feel the weight of responsibility,
An awful weight. Sometimes when we leave home
and we go out into the world and we've left everything to
mom and daddy. Everything's been left to someone
else to make the decisions for us. The responsibility of how
everything turned out was on dad's shoulders. and he's the
one that said yay or nay, and this is what we do, this is what
we don't do, and go here, go there, and be here at this time,
and so on and so forth, sets the standards. And then when
the responsibility is on you, it's on you, and you're carrying
it, and you say, well, how can I bear this responsibility now?
How can I bear it? You want someone who's superior.
Someone will tell you just what to do. Somebody will continue
to tell you when to do it, what to do and when to do it. The
responsibility. You do not want the responsibility
any longer. Now listen to me. This is very
important. If you come to Christ, if you
yield yourself up to the Lord Jesus Christ, if He is King of
your life, There's one wonderful thing about responsibility, that
if you follow His leadership, if you follow His Word, and are
guided by the Holy Spirit and His Word, that you can say, Lord,
You take the responsibility for this, and when it's over with,
then You have the responsibility of it, and not me. I'll follow
Your leadership. I'll follow Your will. I'll do
what You want me to do. Oh God, be my King. Well, this
is somebody to leave our responsibilities to. Isn't that wonderful? Somebody
that'll take them up. Somebody that'll bear them. Somebody
that will. Somebody that knows the way.
Somebody that knows the... What I ought to do today and
what I ought to do today and brother sister this business
of the providence of God God working God Working in the lives
of these people day by day working out his will and his purpose
This is such a wonderful such a wonderful thing and I hope
that you've experienced it in your own life. How many times
have we been kept back? How many times has the Lord directed
us in another way? How many times has the Lord,
in unusual ways, appeared on our behalf? We have the presence
of God. I remember last night, in the
middle of the night, waking up thinking about Hebrews chapter
13, where the scripture says, let your conversation be without
covetousness, and be content with such things as you have.
For he has said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee,
so that you may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, and I will
not fear what man shall do unto me. Beloved, we need to learn
to lean upon our Lord Jesus Christ and cling to him for wisdom and
ability to guide us so that we will not have to shoulder the
whole responsibility of this thing. It's on the shoulders
of him who is well able to bear it. Bring all your difficulties
in this life to the great Lord and King and leave them there
and find in the Lord's King, Jesus Christ, That when you obey
Him and when you're obedient to His ways, it's a blessed thing. It's a blessed thing to trust
Him and see His will worked out in your life. Well, so much then
for the need of grace. I said it was because of our
weakness which come upon us in the fall. is because of our rejecting
in our Father Adam the lordship and kingship of God Almighty
in the Garden of Eden. I said that this weakness shows
itself throughout our life in times of distress, times of responsibility,
times of great stress and pressure upon us when we're coming down
to the end of our life. I've tried to show you these
things. Now the second thing that I want to talk a little
bit about, and I rejoice to be able to, And that is in the answer
of grace that we find here in the first part of verse 10. The
answer of grace. God said, I will be thy king. Notice, if you will, the condescension
of this promise. The condescension of this promise. Now, Israel has destroyed themselves. But God said, in me is thine
help. He said, I will be thy king.
Now look at this. Here's a people that you might,
if you get the picture here, it's not a people that have been
doing everything right. It's not a people that have a
zero balance, as it were, on the ledger sheet. It's not a
people who are just ready to launch out into a life of fruitfulness
and ready to go forward. No, God said, you've destroyed
yourself. You've destroyed yourself and
you're in bad shape. But here, he said, I will be
thy king. Well, who cares to wear a crown
to rule over a people that is in this kind of shape? Well,
the great Lord, the King of Mercy says, I will. You're lost and
ruined, but I'll accept the monarchy of your soul. I will be your
king. I will be your king. Now isn't that condescension?
It is indeed. God knows that in this kingdom
of our souls, in this kingdom of our lives here, that there
are many thoughts, many longings, many lustings that are in rebellion
against Him. Yet he says, I'll take it up,
I'll be your king. Now you know something about
your own heart, don't you? You don't know all about it.
No man knows his own heart fully. But you know enough about your
own heart, your own life, to know that there's a great deal
of rebellion there now. Even those of you that profess
to know the Lord and profess to have Christ dwelling in your
heart by faith, you know there's a whole lot that's not right
in you. Enemies are threatening on the
right hand and on the left. And whoever becomes king of our
lives, he must carry on a long and serious war. Yet the Lord
says I'll take up I'll take up this business, and I'll take
up this crown, and I'll wear it on your behalf. I will be
your king. This is condescension. Condescension. Wonderful. Condescension on God's
part. Now then, I think this morning
that you and I, if we've got a lick of spiritual sense, that
we would say amen. We are glad to be subjects. We're
glad to be subjects to King Jesus. We're glad He is our King. Now, next thing I want you to
notice is how satisfactory a King that our God is to us. I just
want to say a few things about this. Oh, blessed King, We're
glad to have you to rule over us, to be our God, and to be
under the power. We have a stubborn and rebellious
nature, but we're glad to have your power, the power of your
grace, to rule over us. Now this gracious King of ours
is in every way worthy to rule over us. Anybody question that
here this morning? Anybody saved by grace here that
would question the worthiness of the Lord Jesus Christ, he
that is King of kings and Lord of lords, to rule over us? Ought
he not to be king over you? Ought he not to be your king?
Ought he not? Well listen, we know this morning
that our God is good, We know that the Lord Jesus Christ, that
He has demonstrated His love for us. We know that the Father
has pledged to do us good, and happy are the people whose King
is the Lord, because love has been shown and demonstrated. Behold His head. Behold his hands,
behold his feet, look upon that spear mark in his blessed side. It was those wounds, beloved,
that brought us back from sin's slave market. It was those wounds
that made us acceptable unto God, worthy as a lamb that was
slain to be crowned as our king. and to receive the loyal homage
of our hearts. He's worthy. He loved us and
he gave himself for us. He's shown that his interest
is us and his interest is wholly toward us, that his whole heart
is toward us and our desperate need as sinners. Let him be crowned,
the poet said, with majesty who bowed his head to death. and
be his honor sounded high by all things that have breath.
Jesus our Lord, how wondrous great is thine exalted name. The glories of thy heavenly state
let the whole earth proclaim." What a wonderful, wonderful thing
that the Lord said in condescending grace, I will be their king. Well, how consoling this is.
How consoling it is. I say it's unspeakably consoling
that the Lord should be our King. Is there anybody that would feel
unsafe with him being your king? Anybody here that would feel
uneasy with Jehovah being their king? If the eternal and invincible
God becomes our king, well, what foe can harm us? What is it that
we have to be afraid of? His presence is with us. He will
never leave us nor forsake us. His shield protects us from all
those errors that fly by night, that fly by night or by day.
So it is a consoling thing that we have Him as our King. Now, beloved, there are many
times in our life, and I know you know it, and I won't spend
a lot of time on it, but there are many times when rebellion
surfaces. in our lives. We gave ourselves
to the Lord years ago. We give up ourselves over and
over again through the years. We've given ourselves over, bowed
our knees, submitted ourselves, begged him to rule over us, begged
him to be our king, submitted ourselves in every way we knew
how. But many, many times in our experience, there comes up
this rebellion and it surfaces in our life when we become weary
and tired and when we feel somewhat that the battle is ours and that
we're engaged in such a situation and difficulty in our lives that
we just simply don't see any end to and can't see that it'll
ever work out and we need to be consoled in those times, to
know that regardless, in this rebellion, it's the very bitterness,
really, of grief in our hearts. And we need to know that whatever
it is that has crossed our natures, Whatever it is that has crossed
our path and caused us to be uneasy, caused us to feel this
rebellion in our hearts against God and His ways, causes us to
want to launch out on our own and to get out of the way, as
it were, and get away from some of the stress and the pressure
of trying to do and to be what you ought to do and be in this
life. Well, it's wonderful to be able
to come to the place where that we know that he's king and the
Lord hath done it. The Lord hath done it. It's this
great God that's done it. So he has the right to do with
me just as he wills. He's king. He has a right to
do. And that's the greatest source,
I think, of consolation for the believer. We never get relief
from the anguish of our hearts and souls until we new and freshly
crown Jesus Christ in every situation as our only Lord and King. Lay your hand on your mouth and
in the silence of your soul say, it is the Lord. Let him do what
seemeth him good. That's the only consolation you're
ever going to get. So you got problems, have you? Difficulties,
have you? Awful, awful pressing problems,
life. has risen up and smacked you
right down in the way and you don't know what to do and how
to do it and you just labored under this and tried your best
to get away and to get out and to get under and to get away
from this situation, out from under it. But beloved, there
comes a time when you gotta say, well, the Lord has done it, and
you must give up yourself unto Him. And I think that's when
you get the victory. The poet said, when obstacles
and trials seem like prison walls to me, I do the little I can
and leave the rest to Thee. And when it seems no chance nor
change from grief can set me free. Hope finds its strength
in helplessness and patience waits on Thee. All we can do
is submit ourselves unto the Lord. And I don't know a stronger
force in all the world than utter helplessness. When you come to
the place where you're utterly helpless, It's the end of all
care, beloved. It's the end of all care. Then
you can cast yourself on the Lord. Then you can say, when
obstacles and trials seem like prison walls to me, I do the
little I can and leave the rest to thee. I just leave it to you.
Lord, I trust you with the situation. Well, beloved, there are times
when this is such a blessing to me, and it is when I'm frustrated. It's when I get to the place
where, as I've been a few times, and everybody here has been,
we all get frustrated trying to get something done or trying
to go in a direction we feel we ought to go, but things just
simply don't work out. They just simply do not work
out. And it's good to come to the
place where that you realize that the thing is so in the Lord's
hands and that when you cannot work it out that you just fold
up the book and put it on the shelf. You just put the crayon
away. You put the chalk away. You turn
the blackboard around. You just simply give it up and
say to yourself, I'll never have anything more to do with this.
I commit it to the Lord's hands. It's in the Lord's hands. I'll
leave it there. I won't have anything more to
do with it. I'll not take it up again. And beloved, that's
where I'm at about this, about a church building. about this
church moving someplace, that's where I am, right there. I'll
do the little I can and just leave the rest to the Lord. I
cannot move the situation, I can't change it, there's nothing I
can do about it, and so I'll just leave the situation with
the Lord and let Him solve the situation. Your strength, many,
many times, is to sit still and to feel that you have a King
who can settle all your difficulties. He can settle every one of your
difficulties. Now then, I want you to turn
with me, so much for the answer of grace. I want you to turn
to Psalm chapter 44. Psalm 44, and we'll hasten on
here to finish up our message this morning. In Psalm 44, the
psalmist said in verse 4, he says, Thou art my king. Thou
art my king. Now, I said earlier that this
is the acknowledgment of faith. This is a child of God, and he
comes to the place where he said, Thou art my king, O God. Thou
art my king. Have you come to that place?
Can you say that, my dear friend? Can you say that? The Lord has
said, I'll be thy king. Can you say, Thou art my King? Oh God, Thou art my King. Can you say it? We often sing
that, O Him tis done, the great transaction's done. I am the
Lord's and He is mine. Well, is it so? Is it so? Can you say, The Lord is my King? Now then, I know He's your Creator. I know that. And I know too that
There are those that know that the Lord has made them and that
they're not their own, but he's not their king. They've not bowed
to him as their king. They've not submitted themselves
to him, to his lordship. He's the preserver of all men.
The Bible says, but he's not your king unless you are Trusting
the Lord Jesus Christ unless you believe on the Lord Jesus
now I know that he's going to be the judge of the quick and
dead and yet He's gonna be your judge in the judgment yet. You are not this day One who
can say thou art my king Oh God in that that you're not submissive
to him and you've not yielded yourself up to him he's the one
and only Savior of the lost and Yet he is not your king. You can't say it, can you? You
can't say it. Thou art my king, O God. Well, if you can't say it, then
you're a rebel against God. That's what you are. You're a
rebel against the Most High God. And the Bible says, listen to
this verse. But those mine enemies which would not, that I should
reign over them, you bring them hither, and you slay them before
me." God grant that you will never know the real meaning of
that verse, the terrible meaning of that verse, in actual experience. Now, can you say that? Can you say that? Thou art my
king. Oh God. Well, that's the acknowledgement
of faith. Now, there's some things that
I just want to briefly point out to you out of this 44th chapter
that seems to me to be the inheritance of those who can acknowledge
Him to be their King. Men who do, in faith, say, thou
art my king, O God, and mean it with their whole heart. Well,
one of the things that I think that stands out quickly is that
we can expect help in the time of trouble, if that be the case.
If God is our king, we can expect help, immediate help, in the
time of trouble. Look here at this fourth verse.
He said, thou art my king, O God. Command deliverances for Jacob. command deliverances for Jacob
now wouldn't that be a marvelous thing today if God was to command
deliverances for John Mitchell for Susan and for others here
that need desperately to be delivered in their lives the Lord would
command deliverances Well, that's what David said. He said, there,
you're my king, O God. Command deliverances for Jacob. Command deliverances for your
people. And so the Lord can expect deliverances for his people.
And if you've ever felt yourself poor, if you're in poverty, if
you've ever been sick, sickened to death, if you've ever been
depressed, If you've ever had family trials to affect you,
if you've ever had clouds in your sky that are very, very
heavy and days that are dark. If you've ever experienced that,
you may go to your king and tell him and expect him to command
deliverances for you. For if he be your king, he will
see you through it. He'll bear you up and make what
appears to be evil to work for your good and cause your troubles
to prove to be the best blessing that you ever had. Who would
not have such a king as this? Won't you acknowledge him? Thou
art my king, O God. And then another thing that I
want to point out to you is that those who have, look at verse
six, those who can say, Thou art my king, that they rest,
they can rest in Him entirely. They can. Listen to what it says.
He said, I'll not trust in my bull, neither shall my sword
save me. You notice back up in verse three
when he's talking about how the people of Israel got the land.
He said, for they got not the land in possession by their own
sword, neither did their own arms save them, but thy right
hand and thine arm and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst favor unto
them. You had favor unto them, therefore
they got the land by your blessing. And down here, after he said,
thou art my king, he says, for I'll not trust in my bow. I'll
put down all my weapons of war. I quit fighting. I'll put it
down. Neither shall my sword save me. What a mercy it is to be able
to just put up your weapons. Put them up. Not have to fight
anymore about these things. To feel that there is another
who fights for you. To have done with care and worry
and distress and just feel that you've left everything with Jesus
our King. To leave it in His hands. If
He cannot do it, then, beloved, it'll just be left undone if
He can't do it. That's the way I feel about this
morning. If he don't do it, then if he, listen, I'll not trust
in my bow, neither shall my sword save me. And whatever it is that
that would involve. And you can read, and you certainly
know what it's talking about. David said, the Lord will deliver
me if I'm to be delivered. And I'll not do it my own strength
and with the instruments that I have at hand. I'll not do it. The Lord must do it. And then there's one other thing,
and I'm gonna let you go, and that is that those who are able
to say, acknowledged by faith, thou art my king, they have cause
for present joy and rejoicing. Look at verse eight. In God we
boast all the day long, and praise thy name forever, Selah. That's what we do. Now these
are the people of God. Thou art my king, O God. Thou art my king. Praise the
name of the Lord. He who has Christ for his king
will never be ashamed of their monarch or their king. Never
will be ashamed. They can, as the verse says,
boast in God all the day long. Boast in God. Got no confidence
in themselves. Don't have any confidence in
their ability, but they can boast in their God. they can boast
in their God. It's wonderful to know that God
is a God of purpose and that He can work, that He does work,
that He will work. He's our King. Let us boast in
Him all the day long. Now, if you're a rebel, then
this morning I trust that God will show you in His mercy that
He will forgive and blot out your sin if you've ruined yourself,
if you've destroyed yourself. that you'll see that the Lord
will absolve you of all your sin, that he will remit your
sin, that he will forgive you and blot out, as with a thick
cloud, your sin, whatever it involves. And he said, I'll be
your king. I'll take you up. And then you'll
be able to acknowledge, thou art my king, O God. Thou art
my King. What a wonderful thing. The Bible
says that God hath exalted with his right hand Jesus Christ to
be Prince and Savior for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness
of sin. The Son of God, the Son of Mary.
The man of Nazareth, who's also very God of very God, trust,
my friend, to the atonement which flowed from the wounds of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Believe in that power that raised
up the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. Repent of your sin
and lay hold of the garments of salvation, and you can rejoice
in Jesus Christ your king. By the grace of God, through
the power of the Holy Spirit, I hope you can yield up yourself
unto the Lord Jesus Christ to be his loyal subject and faithful
servant from this hour on. That you will submit to him.
Bow to him. Submit and bow to him. May God
grant it for Jesus Christ's sake. Mike, let's have a hymn.