Would you turn with me to the
93rd Psalm? Psalm 93. Before I read the psalm, let
me make one comment. If anyone wonders what the sovereignty
of God means, here it is in Psalm 93. The Lord reigneth. He is clothed with majesty. The Lord is clothed with strength. Wherewith he hath girded himself,
the world also is established that it cannot be moved. Thy throne. is established of
old. Thou art from everlasting. The
floods have lifted up, O Lord. The floods have lifted up their
voice. The floods lift up their waves. The Lord on high is mightier
than the noise of many waters. yea than the mighty waves of
the sea. Thy testimonies are very sure. Holiness becometh thine house,
O Lord, forever." Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for your
word. How we thank you. For who you
are. Lord. Give us this. Sense of awe at your majesty. And your greatness. And your amazing grace that sent
your son to die for sinners. We give thanks. We pray that your gospel would
be preached in the power of your spirit. And that we might be
enabled to worship thy dear son. Lord, we confess our sins. We
pray for forgiveness. We pray for cleansing. We pray that we might be found
in him and nowhere else. We pray for our friends that
are going through sicknesses, difficulties, we pray for your.
Hand of grace to be upon them. Lord, we pray that if it be your
will for your glory. We might be privileged to see
many centers brought to bow the knee to your son. And believe
on him. Bless us for Christ's sake, in
his name we pray, amen. Now as I said, if anyone wonders
what the sovereignty of God means, here it is. The Lord reigneth. I love the way that sounds. The
Lord reigneth. This is the ultimate reality. This is God being God. This is, and I hope I say this
with reverence, this is the Godness of God. The Lord reigneth. He does as he will, when he will,
With whom he will, as he will, all the time. The Lord reigneth. Look in Psalm 47 verse 8. God
reigneth over the heathen. Now, do you hear that? Everywhere
where he's not believed, he reigns. Look in Psalm 96, 10. Say among the heathen that the
Lord reigneth. That is the message for unbelievers. That's what we need to preach.
That's what they need to hear. The Lord reigneth. Say that among the heathen. Psalm 97 verse one. The Lord
reigneth. Let the earth rejoice. This is
something to rejoice in. The Lord reigneth. Psalm 99 verse one. The Lord
reigneth. Let the people tremble in fear. I'm not talking about the fear
of unbelief and mistrust. I'm talking about the fear of
the awe of his person. The Lord reigneth. Let the people
tremble. Now this is God's sovereignty,
and you men object to this. They think in their heart, we
will not have this man reign over us. We don't like this. We don't agree with this, this
thing of the Lord reigning. Now there are two things that
that says about mankind, me and you, what we are in our natural
state. Any objection to God reigning
is number one. It's a man standing in judgment
of God. I don't agree with this. A man becoming God's judge. My reply to, or God's reply to
man judging him is, who art thou, oh man, to reply against God. What business do you have of
sitting in judgment on God? And the second aspect of our
objection, if we object to how could a good God let this happen?
How could God allow this to take place? If he's a loving God,
how does this happen? Anytime anybody objects to God
in that sense, it's denying his goodness He's good all the time
Maybe not by what you and I think of as goodness because we think
of our in our skewed view of things But God is good all the
time the Lord reigneth. This speaks of his absolute authority
all the time. He doeth according to his will
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.
And none can stay his hand. None can stop his will from being
done. Nobody can thwart his will. None can say unto him, what doest
thou? Psalm 115.3, David said, our
God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. The Lord reigneth. Now I want to give you, before
we go on with the exposition of this Psalm, I want to give
you eight words that accurately describe his reign. The Lord reigneth. Number one, he reigns exclusively. You know what that means? He's the only one who reigns.
He's not in competition with the devil. The devil's under
his thumb. The Lord reigns. Men don't reign. The Lord reigns. He reigns secondly, continually. There is no time when he is not
reigning. I may mention this in the last
couple of weeks. I was hearing a preacher who
said, well, the one time God relinquished his sovereignty
was the cross. When he let men have their way. Can't support that from scripture.
As a matter of fact, it's blasphemous. What was going on in the cross
whatsoever his hand and his counsel determined before to be done. The Lord reigns continually. Thirdly, he reigns actively. What do I mean by that? He's
never passive in his reign. He works all things after the
counsel of his own will. Now, have you ever heard somebody
talk about the permissive will of God? Well, that's the permissive
will of God. You know, that's absurd. That
means there's something before God and then he allows it to
happen once he's in. No, God reigns continually, actively. He's in control of everything. He reigns absolutely. He has no boundaries. to his
reign. There is no off limits. There's
no such thing as free will. He is completely sovereign over
the free and uncoerced actions of man. He's in absolute control
over the free and uncoerced actions of being. Now, what we do, we
do freely. We do what we want to do. But
thank God he is completely sovereign over all of the free and uncoerced
actions of men. He reigns majestically. Our text says in Psalm 93 verse
one, the Lord reigneth. He is clothed with majesty. Oh, the majesty. of his reign. I love what Isaiah said when
he saw the Lord, he saw him high and lifted up and his train filled
the temple, sitting on a throne. He reigns powerfully. Psalm 93,
once again, The Lord reigneth. He is clothed with majesty. The
Lord is clothed with strength. He's omnipotent. That means whatever
he wills, he's going to have. He reigns with omnipotence. He
reigns powerfully. And then, his reign is immutable. I love the way our text says,
he's closed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself the world
also established that it cannot be moved. Don't you love that?
You know, people talk about the-we're afraid men are going to ruin
the planet. They're going to ruin the-are
you that arrogant that you think you could do that? Now, once
again, I'm not advocating irresponsibility. We should be very responsible,
but-the way we treat the planet and so on. But the Earth can't
be moved. It's the earth, it's the Lord's and the fullness thereof,
the world and they that dwell therein. It can't be moved. And
he's, you know, the Lord doesn't have a plan B. He doesn't have
a contingency plan. His will must be done. And he rules eternally. Thy throne,
verse two, is established of old. Thou art from everlasting. His eternal reign. Before time
began, He reigned. During this thing called time
that He placed, He reigns. When there will be no more time,
He reigns. This is the ultimate reality. The Lord reigneth. Turn with me for a moment to
Ephesians chapter 1. Hold your finger there and I
want you to look at this with me. Ephesians chapter 1. Paul says in verse 9, Having made known unto us the
mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he
had purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness
of times." I like saying that. That's so glorious. That's so
majestic. This is God. He might gather
together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven
and which are on earth, even in him." Now here's the, here's,
I want us to look at four words in this verse. In whom we also,
we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated. There's
the first word. According to the purpose. There's
the second word. Of him who worketh all thing
after the council. There's the third word of his
own will. There's the fourth word. And
I think we can have some idea of what God's reign means in
those four words. Now, the first word that I would
notice in that passage of scripture is the word council. Council. Now, there was a council called
the Council of Peace. That's a scriptural, that's what
the scripture calls it, the Council of Peace. that was made before
the foundation of the world. This is before there was any
kind of creation. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit had a council together as to what they were going to
do for the glory of his name, to the praise of the glory of
his grace. It's called the covenant of grace. I love the word council. Now,
the next word that I would consider in that one verse is the word
will. The divine decision. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit willed that everything they had counseled
would take place. The will. I want to say this reverently.
God micromanages the universe. All things are done after the
counsel of his own will. And we love it that way. Look at the alternative. Somebody
else is running the show. I can't deal with that. God controls all the affairs
of the universe. His will of decree is always
done. Then we have the word purpose. Purpose, the divine determination. God does what he does according
to his purpose. And then we have the word predestination. I love that word. I think it's
amazing that people will say, well, you believe in predestination.
Yeah. I love predestination. Predestination
is God being God predetermining that all that he counseled would
come to pass. The Lord reigneth. He is clothed with majesty, regal
splendor. He's clothed with omnipotence. Now here's a scripture, go to
Romans five that I think gives a beautiful illustration of what
his reign means by way of grace. Romans chapter five, verse 20, moreover, Romans 5
verse 20, moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound. Now what does that say? It says
the law entered not to check the offense, not to restrain
it, not to make it less than it is, but that it might abound,
overflow. But where sin abounded. Now would that, would you be
that place? That's what I'm asking you. That's what I'm asking myself.
Would that be you? Where sin abounded? Somebody says, no, that's not
me. I'm by the grace of God better than that. That's not the case
with regard to me. Well, if that's true, if you
are not a place where sin abounds, grace doesn't abound with you.
It's only where sin abounds that grace does much more abound. Verse 21, that as sin hath reigned
unto death. Now here's what is this thing
of reigning? How much control do you have
over death? What can you do to prevent death? Nothing. You have no control,
none at all. Even as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so in the precise same manner might grace reign. How much control do you have
over grace reigning in you? None. And that grace reigns through
righteousness. It's righteous grace, altogether
righteous. Unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. The reign of grace. The Lord reigneth. Now let's
go back to our text. Psalm 93. The Lord reigneth. He's clothed with majesty. The Lord is clothed with omnipotence,
wherewith he had girded himself. The world also established that
it cannot be moved. Thy throne that speaks of his
absolute sovereign reign. Thy throne is established of
old. eternally thou art from everlasting
the eternal God. Now, verse three, the floods
have lifted up. And this is talking about, I've
never been on the sea when the waves are so big and scary and
a giant ocean liner would be tossed to and fro like a a plastic
ball and the waves have lifted up. The floods represent opposition,
the opposition of demons, the opposition of men. They've lifted
up themselves in pride, in chaos. Do you know men hate God? There's
the problem. If it were in our power by nature,
we would pull God off his throne and take his place. That's the
truth with regard to me and you. Men hate God. They hate the living God. The
floods represent opposition. The world would remove him from
his throne. This is the universal hiss of
all mankind. We will not have this man reign
over us. The floods have lifted up, O
Lord. The floods have lifted up their
voice. The floods lift up their waves in opposition. Verse four,
the Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters,
yea, than the mighty waves of the sea. Now, opposition to him. is nothing. He is mightier than all the opposition
to him. Turn to Psalm 2 for a moment. The psalmist asked this question,
why did the heathen rage? And the people imagine a vain
thing, thinking they can do something about God's purpose. The kings
of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together
against the Lord and against His anointing, saying, let us
break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh. Do you hear that? They will,
he will laugh. You think you can oppose me? He that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them
in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Every opposition to the Lord
is absolutely vain. Now, the ultimate rebellion of
man, when we're talking about men rebelling against God, the
ultimate rebellion of man is found in this term that men love
so much, free will. All that is, is rebellion against
God's will and God's sovereignty. The ultimate act of rebellion,
free will. When I say I have a free will,
I say my will is free from God's will. That's like Isaiah 14. I will ascend into the heavens.
I will exalt my throne above the stars. God says, no, you'll
be brought down to hell. Verse five. Verse four, the Lord on high
is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty
waves of the sea. Thy testimonies. are very sure. I love that statement. You know
the word amen is the word very sure and this word amen it's
been called the most universally recognized word in the language
of the world. It's a Hebrew word, but in Greek,
it's amen. And we call it amen, we say it. In many, many languages, the
very word amen is used. It means, so be it. It's true. When the Lord says, verily, verily,
he's saying, amen, amen. It's true. This is the truth. Thy testimonies, everything he
said, are very sure. And I love this last statement. Holiness. Become a thine house,
O Lord, forever. Holiness. Otherness. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
God of hosts. The whole earth is filled with
his glory. Now this is befitting to his
house. Now this speaks of the holiness
of the Lord, the temple of God. This speaks the holiness of his
people. Every believer is holy in Christ
Jesus. And this is befitting to his
house. It becomes his house. We worship the God who is other. There's none like him. The Lord reigneth. Now, I've got three words I want
us to keep with regard to the Lord's reign. Number one, recognize
this. The Lord reigneth. Recognize
this. The Lord reigneth. Secondly,
rejoice in this. The Lord reigneth. What a reason to rejoice. What
a reason to exult in happiness. The Lord reigneth. Recognize
this, rejoice in this, and rest in this. The Lord reigneth. The Lord reigneth. Reality. Amen.