Would you turn to 2 Samuel chapter
22. I'd like to read verses 44 through
46 of 2 Samuel chapter 22. Thou also has delivered me from
the strivings, the contention, the controversy of my people. Thou has kept me to be head of
the heathen, a people which I knew not shall serve me. Strangers, shall submit themselves
unto me, and my marginal reading says, yield feigned obedience. They're going to do what I tell
them to do, whether they are willing about it. As soon as
they hear, they shall be obedient unto me. Strangers shall fade
away, and they shall be afraid. out of their close places, their
fortified places. Let's pray together. Lord, we come into your presence
in Christ's name and Lord, we ask that you would be pleased
to meet with us. We ask that you would be pleased
to speak in power to our hearts. Lord, drive away anything that
would distract us in hearing from thee. And we ask that your
gospel would be preached, that you'd have mercy on us, that
you'd forgive us of our sins, that you'd give us grace to look
once again to thy son. Give us grace to love you more
and love one another more. Lord, we pray for your favor,
your free grace. What we ask for ourselves, we
ask for all your people wherever they meet together. And Lord,
we would remember those that are going through trials, physical
sickness, emotional sickness. We ask that you would bless those
times for their good and your glory. And Lord, give us grace
to see that you're in control of all things. In Christ's blessed
name, we pray. Amen. Now once again, this is David's
last psalm. And he's giving us the thoughts
of his heart shortly before he dies. You'll remember in the
next chapter, we read these be the last words of David. But
this is David's last psalm. And he's reviewing the Lord's
mercies toward him. And in these verses, David is
not speaking of the children of Israel. David is speaking
of the heathen. I don't remember a passage like
this anywhere in David's writings. But David is speaking of the
heathen serving him and doing his will and giving him famed
obedience, people he knew not, people who were strangers. Now
turn with me to 1 Chronicles chapter 14 for a moment. Verse 17, And the fame of David went unto
all the lands, and the Lord brought the fear of him upon all nations. Now this is the position David
had. He was the most powerful man in the world at this time. He had military might. Everybody
was afraid of him. And they would yield him feigned
obedience. When he told them what to do,
they did it. They might not have done it willingly.
But he said, you've made me the head of the heathen. A people
that I knew not shall serve me. As soon as they hear, they're
going to be obedient. They're going to be scared to
death of me. Now, this is David speaking of
the position that the Lord had put him in. Look once again in
our text. Let's read it in that light.
Thou hast also delivered me from the strivings of my people. And
you know, everybody was his people. Everybody was his people. He's
not talking about the children of Israel. Remember when the
Lord said, thou has given him power over all flesh, that he
should give eternal life to as many as thou has given him. You've
delivered me from the strivings of my people. Thou has kept me
to be the head of the heathen. A people which I knew not shall
serve me. Strangers shall submit themselves
unto me. They're going to yield unwilling
obedience, but they're going to be obedient. As soon as they
hear, shall they be obedient unto me. Strangers shall fade
away, and they shall be afraid out of their close places. Now these words, once again,
are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's really the best way that
could be understood. Yes, there's the words of David.
The Lord brought the fear of David upon every nation. But
these are most especially the words of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Everybody and everything is obedient to his will. Performing his purpose. Let me remind you. Jesus Christ
is Lord. And he's good. He's not some tyrant. You know,
if a human being like me, if you put any human being into
a position of being all powerful, where would it go? It'd be bad. It would always be bad. If you
put a human being, a fallen human being, and put him in a position
where he had all power, you give me a position like that, watch
out. Watch out. And you're that way, too. You
think, maybe, no, I wouldn't be that way. It kills me the way
people always sit in judgment on God. Why didn't God save everybody?
Why didn't God do this? Why didn't God do that? I'm glad you're not God. And
I'm glad I'm not God, and I'm glad He is God. He has absolute
sovereign control of everything, but it's not some tyrant that's
in control. It's Him who is good. Good. The goodness of God leadeth thee
to repentance. Everything that takes place is
His will being done, and He is completely... I love saying this. He is completely sovereign and
in control over all of the free and uncoerced actions of men. Now I want you to think about
that. Everybody in the world, whatever the world's population
is, I think the last thing I heard was 7 billion or over 7 billion.
Everybody does what they want to do, don't they? Everybody
does what they want to do. And He is completely sovereign
over all the actions of everybody there is. And everybody is going
to yield obedience to Him whether they like it or not. Now, that's
the teaching of this passage of Scripture. What comfort there
is in that. Everything that takes place,
and you know, there's all kinds of stuff. How does the Lord allow
some of these horrible things to happen? You think of the things
some people go through, child abuse, the horrible things. How could God allow that kind
of stuff to happen? I don't know. But I know this,
He's good. And He brings good out of evil. He always brings good out of
evil. And what's the most evil thing
to ever take place? You know the answer to that?
The cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, when the creature nailed its
creator to the cross. What a horrible, terrible thing. What is the most good that's
ever been done? The cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so
the point is, I don't understand what all's going on, and there's
stuff that just trumps me. You know, how could this happen?
How could that happen? How could the Lord allow this?
I don't know. But I know this. He's in control. He's sovereign
and He always brings good out of evil. Turn with me to Daniel chapter
4. Now this is a heathen king by the
name of Nebuchadnezzar. We read beginning in verse 16,
this is what God has said about him. Now remember, he was the
most powerful man in the world at that time, and God put him
in that position. And look in verse 16, this is
what's going to happen to him. This is the interpretation of
the dream that Daniel is giving to Nebuchadnezzar. He said, let
his heart, this is talking about Nebuchadnezzar, be changed from
a man's and let a beast's heart be given unto him and let seven
times or seven years pass over him. Now that's a real disease.
of something where people can actually think they're an animal.
And he lived out in the woods for seven years. His never, no
haircut, no, his fingernails and toenails became like bird's
claws. He was turned into a beast. The most powerful man in the
world was turned into a beast. Verse 17, this matter is by the
decree of the watchers and the demand by the word of the holy
ones to the intent that the living may know that the most high ruleth
in the kingdom of men." Everything that's going on, you know who's
in control of it? The Most High. And He giveth
it to whomsoever He will, and setteth up over it the basest
of men. Now, verse 33. The same chapter, chapter four.
The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar and he was
driven from men and did eat grass as oxen and his body was wet
with the dew of heaven till his hairs were grown like eagle's
feathers and his nails like bird claws. And at the end of the
days, The seven years was up, I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine
eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed
the Most High, and I praised and honored him that liveth forever,
whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom from
generation to generation, and all the inhabitants of the earth
are reputed as nothing, and he doeth according to his will.
In the armies of heaven, you know I love that Thy kingdom
come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." How is His
will done in heaven? Completely. But did you know
that His will is done completely on earth too? He's in control
of everything. And once again, well, how does
this happen? How does that happen? I don't know, but He's in control
of it. And I'm just fine with that, aren't you? He's good. He's glorious. He's holy. He's
God. And whatever He does is right.
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 him from doing whatever it is he's pleased to do, or
saying to him, What doest thou? You see, God really is God, isn't
He? I just love thinking about His
absolute sovereignty over everything and everybody. I'm the head of
the heathen, the Lord says. They're going to do my will whether
they want to or not. They're still going to yield
obedience to me because of who I am. You know what we say of
God? We say of the Lord Jesus Christ because He's God. His
will is always done. Now turn with me to Isaiah chapter
45. And this is the Lord speaking
to Cyrus. At this time, he's the most powerful
man alive. He's the king. Thus saith the Lord to his anointed
to Cyrus. whose right hand I have holden
to subdue nations before thee, and I will loose the loins of
kings to open before thee the two-leaved gates, and the gates
shall not be shut. I will go before thee and make
the crooked places straight. I will break in pieces the gates
of brass and cut and sunder the bars of iron." Now Cyrus thinks
he's doing all this stuff. I'm so powerful, look at how
no one can stand before me. He thinks he's doing all this
stuff, but who's doing it? The Lord's doing it. He's in control
of all this. He says in verse three, and I
will give thee the treasures of darkness and hidden ridges
of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which
call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel. For Jacob, my
servant's sake, and Israel, mine elect, I've even called thee
by thy name. I've surnamed thee, though thou'st
not known me. You don't know I'm doing this
stuff, but I'm the one doing it. I am the Lord and there's
none else. There's no God beside me. I go
to thee though thou has not known me. That they may know from the
rising of the sun and from the west that there's none beside
me. I am the Lord and there's none else. I form the light and
create darkness. I make peace and create evil.
I the Lord do all these things. That's who God is. That's who
the Lord Jesus Christ is. Turn with me to Proverbs chapter
21. You know, if we really believed
this, we'd never worry again about anything, would we? If we really
believed it. I sometimes think that we don't
much believe what we say we do. Because if we did, we'd never
worry. We'd be completely content and satisfied with everything
because we would really believe this is the Lord. It's the Lord. Let him do what seemeth him good.
Look in verse one of chapter 21. The king's heart is in the
hand of the Lord. As the rivers of water, it doesn't
say he has the ability to turn it whether so ever he will. It
says he turneth it, whether so ever he will. Look in chapter
19, verse 21. There are many devices in a man's
heart, many plans, many plans, many intentions. Seven billion
people, is that what I said? Seven billion different intentions.
Many plans in a man's heart. Nevertheless, the counsel of
the Lord, that shall stand. Look in chapter 16. The preparations or the dispositions,
the disposings of the heart in man and the answer of the tongue,
the answer he gives you. is from the Lord. Everything. Look in verse 4. The Lord hath
made all things for himself, yea, even the wicked, for the
day of evil. Verse 9. A man's heart devises
his way, but the Lord directeth his steps. The steps of a good man are ordered
by the Lord. Verse 33, the lot is cast in
the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. Now this is not, when I'm saying
this, this is not fuel for fatalism. You hear? This is not fuel for
fatalism. Well, God directs everything,
but whatever I do, you don't hear? It's not fuel for fatalism,
but it is fuel for faith, isn't it? The Lord reigns. Let me show you a passage in
2 Kings. Chapter 5. We always think of Naaman, but
we don't think of these first couple of verses what the Bible
says about him. 2 Kings chapter 5 verse 1, Now
Naaman, the captain of the host of the king of Syria, the enemies
of Israel, who at this time has military might over Israel and
controls Israel, Now Naaman the captain of the host of the king
of Syria was a great man with his master and honorable because
by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria. Now I thought the
Lord only gave deliverance to Israel. No, it was the Lord's
will that Syria be over Israel at this time. So he's in control
of our victories, he's in control of our losses, isn't he? He's
in control of everything. Let's go on reading. He was a
mighty man in valor, but he was a leper. And the Syrians had
gone out by companies and had brought away captive out of the
land of Israel a little maid." And you know the rest of the
story. The Lord in His providence caused this little maid to be
brought. And she's the one who told them about the prophet in
Israel. But God was in control of every
I think of that passage in Luke chapter 2 verse 1 where there
went out a decree from Caesar that all the world be taxed.
Now what was Caesar's motive? Did he realize that this was
going to be used to make it to where Joseph and Mary are going
to have to leave Nazareth, go back to Bethlehem? He didn't
have any idea that's what was going on, did he? He wanted to
put more money in the Roman coffers to make them greater, a greater
military might. He had no idea that he was a
pawn in God's hand being used to make sure Joseph and Mary
would go back to Bethlehem. And that's where the Lord would
be born in answer to Micah chapter five, verse two, where it said
he would be born in Bethlehem. Now Caesar, man, he, He had no
idea. He thought he was the greatest
man in the world, and he didn't know he was nothing more than
a pawn in God's hand doing God's will. Here's a very familiar
passage of scripture, Acts chapter 4. This is what is meant by David
saying, everybody's going to obey me. Everybody and everything
is going to obey me. Acts chapter 4. Verse 26, the kings of the earth
stood up and the rulers were gathered together against the
Lord and against his Christ for the truth against thy holy child
Jesus whom thou has anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel. Now who does that
cover? Everybody. Herod and Pontius Pilate, all
the Jews and all the Gentiles, everybody. They were gathered
together. Who gathered them together? The
Lord did. To do what? Verse 28, for to
do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to
be done. Now I want to close this real
briefly with us remembering the story of Joseph. Joseph, the
favored son. It's no wonder his brothers hated
him, if you read the story. I mean, Jacob made such a difference
with Joseph. He made Joseph a coat of many
colors to show his favoritism toward this young man. And the
other guys, you know, go out and feed the sheep. You know,
he's gonna stay with me. You know, he made such a difference. And then Joseph had those dreams.
He dreamed and he told these guys, you're all gonna bow before
my feet. And the scripture says that they
hated him. They hated their brother. They couldn't speak peaceably
to him. Now, I can understand that. You
think about it. Put yourself in your place. Dad
makes such a difference with him and he tells us that we're
all going to bow before him and bow at his feet. They hated him.
So what did they do? They sold him as a slave to the
Midianites and cruelly told their father that a beast had devoured
him. You want to talk about cold-blooded,
merciless men. Now, Joseph is taken into Egypt,
sold as a slave, and he becomes a slave for Potiphar. He succeeds. He does a really good job. Everything
that Potiphar had, he put in the hands of Joseph. He was doing
so well, and Potiphar had a wife. And she kept coming at him, come
with me, lay with me. And he wouldn't do it, so she
accused him of rape. He's thrown into a prison. Everything
I do, no matter how good it is, it ends up being bad. Here he
is laying there in a prison cell. And he prospers in the prison.
And you know the story, how, how, He interpreted a dream for
two people and came true. And the man ended up, when Pharaoh
had that dream about the skinny cows and the skinny ears of corn
eating the fat ears and the fat cow, he couldn't interpret it.
And the guy remembered, there's a guy in prison that can interpret
dreams. And they bring out Joseph and
Joseph tells them what it means. It's seven years of plenty. And those represent the fat cows. And then the skinny cow is gonna
come and eat those. That represents seven years of
famine. So Pharaoh makes him the head of Egypt in order to
manage the seven years of plenty so they'd have plenty of food
for the years of famine. Now you remember when Jacob said,
go buy some corn in Egypt, he sent ten boys there. He wouldn't let Benjamin go.
Benjamin was now his favorite. He said, I've lost Joseph I can't
bear to lose Benjamin. I mean I can barely lose you
guys but not him so he sends him off And Joseph recognizes
them. They don't recognize him, but
he recognizes them. And he speaks roughly with them.
And he asks them, where's your brother? How'd he know we had
a brother? They were scared to death. But he said, you can't
come back and get food except you bring your brother with you.
Now let's look in Genesis 45. All the terrible things that
happened to Joseph. And you think about how ruthless
his brothers are. As a matter of fact, read Genesis
49. when Jacob talks about his boys,
he doesn't paint a pretty picture of them. Says concerning Reubel,
unstable as water, thou shalt not excel. I mean, he didn't
have any motherly, the way my mother would view me, he named
them for what they are. But look here in Genesis chapter
45. Then Joseph could not refrain
himself before all them that stood by him. And he cried, cause
every man to go out for me. And there stood no man with him,
while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. And he wept
aloud, and the Egyptians in the house of Pharaoh heard. And Joseph
said unto his brethren, I'm Joseph. Doth my father yet live? And
his brethren could not answer him, for they were troubled at
his presence." It's coming back. What goes around comes around.
And that's what's happening with us. And Joseph said unto his brethren,
Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said,
I'm Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. Now he didn't
forget that, did he? He didn't just say, nothing happened,
just forget it. He said, no, you sold me into
Egypt. Now therefore, be not grieved nor angry with yourselves
that you sold me hither, for God did send me before you to
preserve life. For these two years hath the
famine been in the land, and yet there are five years in which
there shall neither be earing nor harvest. And God sent me
before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth and to save your
lives by a great deliverance. Now it was not you that sent
me hither, but God. Now do you hear that? You didn't do this. God did. Now what you did was wicked,
but you didn't do this. God did. And he has made me a
father to Pharaoh and Lord of all his house and a ruler throughout
all the land of Egypt. Turn to Genesis 50. This is after
Jacob is dead. Verse 15. And when Joseph's brethren saw
that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will prevent or
hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did
unto him. As a man is, so he thinks others to be. They just
said, Joseph, that's what we do, and this is what Joseph's
gonna do. And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, thy father
did command before he died, saying, so shall you say to Joseph, forgive,
I pray thee now the trespass of thy brethren and their sin.
For they did unto the evil, and now we pray thee, forgive the
trespasses of the servants of the God of thy father. You know
what I think? I think they were lying. I don't
think Jacob did that. I think that after he died, they
got together and said, here's what we need to say. This is
what's going to protect us. We're going to put this on Jacob.
Now, do I know that that's the, I don't know that, but I'm just
speculating. I don't think they were telling the truth. Jacob
knew his boy would forgive him. He knew Joseph, but he knew his
character, but they were scared to death. And Joseph wept when
they spake unto him, and his brethren also went and fell down
before his face, and said, Behold, we be thy servants. And Joseph
said unto them, Fear not, for am I in the place of God. But
as for you, you thought evil against me, there's no question
about that. But God meant it unto good to bring to pass as
it is this day to save much people alive. Now therefore fear ye
not, I will nourish you and your little ones. And he comforted
them and spake kindly unto them. This is my father's world. And let me ne'er forget that
though the wrong seems also strong, God is the ruler yet. This is my father's world. The
battle is not done. Jesus who died shall be satisfied
and earth and heaven be one. Now David looks out at all of
the world, and he says, they're going to yield obedience to me.
And Christ says the same thing, only it's different with the
greater David. He's perfectly good, perfectly
holy. He's the Lord. And aren't you
glad everything yields obedience to him?