Thank you so much. So this evening we are going to have a special speaker. I want to mention this though I like it when people get excited about inviting their guests get inviting guests to To the joint guest crusade. Here's very creative. This says the Hague family would like to invite you to our house on this They pass this out at work We'd like to invite you to our house on one or all of these dates, September 13th through September 16th. We'll be getting together at our house between 4 and 5 p.m. to enjoy dinner and some time with friends and families. Then we'll be going to our church for dessert, for the dessert of preaching to be done by Evangelist Dr. John Goetsch. and uh... so that they've invited friends to come to their house to eat i told him i'm sitting in his pew and uh... so uh... be great to eat over there okay so uh... i just want to encourage you to get him to get creative about inviting your friends like the haig's did tonight uh... yan lemonsoni is going to be speaking for us i did not know whether i would be back in town or not this evening and so i asked him to prepare a message on on uh... Psalm chapter 21 and so he's going to preach for us tonight so get ready I'm sure it'll be great. All right, let's turn to Psalm chapter 21 tonight. Psalm 21, it's gonna be page 436 in the Pew Bible. If you don't have your Bible with you, Psalm the 21st. We're gonna go ahead and read through it once, we'll pray, and then we'll make some observations and some comments from God's word and to see how this Psalm can be a help to us tonight. I'm gonna go ahead and read through it once and then we'll go ahead and pray and we'll begin. Psalm the 21st, to the chief musician, a Psalm of David. The king shall joy in thy strength, O Lord, and in thy salvation, how greatly shall he rejoice. Thou hast given him his heart's desire and has not withholden the request of his lips. Selah. For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness. Thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head. He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days, forever and ever. His glory is great in thy salvation. Honor and majesty hast thou laid upon him. For thou hast made him most blessed forever. Thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance. For the king trusteth in the Lord, and through the mercy of the Most High he shall not be moved. Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies. Thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee. Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger. The Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them. Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth, and their seed from among the children of men. For they intended evil against thee, they imagine a mischievous device which they are not able to perform. Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back, when thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon thy strings against the face of them. be thou exalted lord in thine own strength so we will sing and praise thy power let us pray father we thank you for the opportunity to give us to come to your house tonight lord and what a privilege and honor it is to be in the service of the king of kings and the lord of lords lord we ask tonight that your holy spirit would fill us father Empty us of ourselves, Father, that we'd be able to hear your word. Pray that the word would shape and mold our lives to be more like your son. Father, that we'd leave this service tonight better people, better servants, and better Christians and representatives of you. Father, I pray that under the sound of my voice, if there's one tonight that doesn't know you as their Lord and Savior, Father, that they'd come to know you tonight by the end of the service. Father, I pray for Christians tonight that they would be encouraged and blessed. Lord, lift them up, Father. We ask that your name would be holy tonight and your kingdom would come, Father. Pray that everything that's said and done tonight would uplift the Lord Jesus Christ, Lord. Hide me behind your cross as we preach your word. In your holy and precious name, amen. So as I looked through this psalm, I had to do a little bit of studying, obviously, and I was noticing something very, very peculiar. A lot of times, some of the psalms seem to be sporadic, as in there's one psalm dealing with one subject, and then the next psalm is dealing with a completely different subject. But once in a while, like we saw last time I preached, some of the psalms correlate with the one right before it or the one right after it. Well, it's interesting to see that this psalm comes right after Psalm 20. And in Psalm 20, when Pastor preached last time, we saw something interesting. We saw that this one is preceded by Psalm 20, because in Psalm 20, you see the people and the king asking a request for God. At this point in Psalm 20, you almost see the king and the people, they're asking the Lord for deliverance from a future battle of something that is coming, maybe a trial or tribulation or a war. And you see David, the king, and you see the people just begging God that he would do his work, that his presence would be amidst them through this time of battle and through this time of war. And then we see the Psalm 21st that kind of continues this thought, but this thought under the Psalm 21st is after the fact of the battle. So here the question is, which King is this passage about? Well, obviously we see that this is a Psalm of David. So this is dealing with King David himself, the ruler of Israel. But not only is it about King David, once again, we see a beautiful picture of the Lord Jesus Christ as King of King and Lord of Lords. So obviously we know it's about David, but I'm going to preach tonight mainly about the Lord Jesus Christ and how it references to this passage. So as we peer into this royal throne room of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, after he has returned from battle, what are some things that we can observe? So the message tonight is called the return of the king. After this huge battle or this conflict that has happened, the Lord Jesus Christ comes back or we see David coming back from battle and we see comments being made. So what do we see as we appear into the royal throne room of the king? Well, the first thing I submit to you is that we see a preeminent king. Now we see a preeminent king as a result of a powerful victory. Look at verses one and two. It says in verse one, the king shall joy in thy strength, O Lord, and in thy salvation, how greatly shall he rejoice. Thou has given him his heart's desire and has not withholden the request of his lips. We see here, first of all, that the strength and the salvation are attributed not to the King himself, but to God Almighty. We see the word, O Lord, Lord capitalized, meaning Jehovah God, Jehovah meaning the I am that I am, the Lord Jesus Christ himself. But here we see David pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ and saying, it's because of your strength and because of your salvation, not mine. And it's interesting for King David to say that because when you look at king david's life probably one of the most prestigious kings who have ever lived most written about even not just in the bible but in secular cultures as well there's lots written about king david and it's interesting here that king david attributes the strength and the salvation from god almighty and not of his own hand it has been said that when man works man works But when man prays, God works. We see here in verse two that it says, thou has given him his heart's desire and has not withholding the requests of his lips. What request was made? Well, look back in Psalm 20. We're not gonna read the whole passage for sake of time, but look at verse four, Psalm 20, verse four. King David here and the people are begging God and they say, grant thee according to thine own heart and fulfill all thy counsel. And he's referring there and he's speaking to God Almighty and he's asking God, give us this victory, grant us this wish that we desire of you. Now, not only does this passage allude to King David's heart desire, the desire of the king, but he's also, I'm reminded of the fact that every prayer that the Lord Jesus Christ prayed was answered. Now, sometimes we think about that. Every single thing that Jesus Christ said has either happened or will happen. Every single prayer that Jesus Christ knelt down before his father and asked of God, God answered. It's an amazing fact. We saw in John 11, 42, I'm gonna give you a lot of scripture. So if you wanna write it down on the side, that's fine, but I'm gonna go ahead and say it for you. John 11, 42 says, and I know that thou hearest me always. So referring there to the passage where he raises Lazarus from the dead, but he says to God Almighty, the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking to God the Father. He says, I know that thou hearest me always. Always does God hear us. Sometimes it puts us to shame. Does God always hear our prayers? Is there things in our life? Sometimes that would hinder God from answering our prayer The Bible says in James 4 2 says that we have not Because we ask not Now this is a simple question, but I have to ask this myself consistently to see if I'm walking with the Lord. When was the last time that I can remember a specific detailed answer to prayer? A specific detailed answer to prayer. In Yann LeMasson's life, an answer to prayer that I remember praying for on a specific date and God answered in this very specific way. Was it last month? Was it last week? What was it even this year? Well, I submit to you that, you know what? We should go every day of our lives with God answering prayer. There should not be a day that God doesn't answer a specific prayer. Now, it doesn't have to be some huge, gigantic prayer request before God, but it could be a little thing. It could be a situation with your child. It could be a situation with your wife. It could be a financial situation. But every single day of our lives, we should be seeing answers to prayer. And pastor preaches on prayer all the time. And he keeps saying this and sometimes it in with our, with my hard head, I don't believe it. But the fact is that prayer is simply asking, asking God. Now the answer to prayer is receiving, but are you praying to receive? Are you just praying just to pray? So are you praying in expectance that God will answer it for you? says here that our heart's desire is being met by the only one who can supply them. See, I may ask you something and you may say, well, brother, yeah, I appreciate you asking me for that, but I can't help you in any way. I'll pray for you. Well, the amazing thing is we can come to God's throne and we can come before him with a pure heart and say, God, can you do this for me? Lord, I ask you to do this for me. And you know what? Of all people in the world that can answer your prayer, God can. See, sometimes I can ask you, hey, I need, you know, you're by the soda machine, oh, can you give me a dollar? Oh, sure, I pray that you give me a dollar and then you'll give me a dollar and I'll buy, well, it's actually $1.25, but $1.25, you buy yourself a soda, that answer, that prayer that I prayed to you, you answered to me. But sometimes in life, there's situations that man cannot resolve. We should go to God with our prayer requests. Spurgeon said this well, and he says what is in the well of the heart is sure to come up in the bucket of the lips So how is your heart is your heart in an attitude that is ready to come before God? Matthew 1234 says for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh Now, we continue on this passage here, and we see that his prayer request was answered. Now, notice the small word there, five letters, after verse two, it says, Selah. Now, you'll see this throughout the Psalms, and pastor has explained this several times, but Selah is a time of, a point of rest, and a point of meditation. When I read it, I didn't really do justice to it, but I paused. and I waited. I think it's fitly put there. I think the author, God wanted us to see that now that I've answered your prayer requests, are you trusting in me? I see almost God saying, why don't you think about your prayer life? Why don't you think about how I've been good to you, about the answers to your prayers? God at a very appropriate time rests and to think about God's provision for you. Now, not only do we see that he's a preeminent king because of a result of a powerful victory, but we see that he's a preeminent king as a result of the blessings of his goodness. Let's look at verse three. It says here, for thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness. Thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head. Now look at the word preventest, and I had to study that word because upon first reading I said, for thou preventest. Now the word prevent in our English language we would think would mean the word hinder. But in this passage specifically, it's not referring to the word hinter. It's actually referring to the idea of preceding or coming before. So if you read it like that, it would say, for thou preceded him with the blessings of goodness. Preceded who? Well, preceded the King and the Lord Jesus Christ. So here we see something that it's amazing that God's goodness is forever existed in our lives. Sometimes I have to think about that thought. The fact doesn't matter is that before I was born, God was good. When I was born, God was really good. Maybe not, okay. But when I was good, God was good when I was born. He was good to my life. He was good to my mother, I was born. And then as I grew up and I was unsaved as a child until the age of seven, God was still good to me. And then the ultimate gift of goodness from Him to me was the day I received Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. See, God's goodness has been good from before we were born, from the day of our birth, to the circumstances that led to our salvation, and to the day we'll pass off into eternity. God is still good. God has been good to us. If God's been good to you, can you say amen? If God's been good to you today, can you say amen? You know, God has been so wonderful in so many ways to us. And the fact of the matter is even before we were saved, God was good to us. It says in Romans 2, 4, it says that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. See, God's goodness was all around the circumstances of my life that led me to a point where I came before him and I said, dear Jesus, I know I'm a sinner. I know I deserve, rightfully so, to spend an eternity in hell to pay for my sins forever, but I accept Jesus Christ as my personal Savior to do for me what I couldn't do for myself. The goodness of God is what drew me to the Lord Jesus Christ, how good He had been to me, how good He had preserved us, and then through the goodness of His salvation. In Psalm 52.1, it rightfully says, the goodness of God endureth continually, continually forever. We can see God's goodness in the simple fact that every morning the sun rises. Every morning, his mercies are new in our lives. I just love watching the sun rise. And I just love watching the fact that you'll see the beautiful stars. And I love that message. Pastor preached a couple of weeks ago when he showed all the different, the planets and galaxies, just the beautiful, the beauty of God's creation. He's been good to us. He's been good to us in so many ways. The fact that I woke up and I had breath in my lungs. He was good to me this morning. And His mercies are new every morning as well. Now, the third thing we can see here as well, is He's not only a preeminent King because of His powerful victory, but, or because of the blessings of His goodness, but we'll keep looking in verse three, because He's crowned with glory. Look at the end of verse three there, it says, for thou proceeded Him with the blessings of goodness. Thou settest a crown of pure gold on His head, It is interesting to note that as the man Jesus Christ came through this world, he lived a perfect life and he suffered and he died. And before he died, he suffered an agony, an agony beating that was horrific in every manner. They placed a crown of thorns on his head and they took it and they placed it on his head and they beat it in so that the blood would run down his face and onto his robe and onto his body. As a man, he was crowned with a crown of thorns. But he is now seated at the right hand of Almighty Father wearing a glory crown of pure gold. He's wearing the crown of righteousness. The crown here is indicative of his majestic power. of deserved honor. He deserves the crown of a glorious conquest. He is victorious all the time and of divine authority. He is the one who rules all and is all. It's also a crown of the richest, of the rarest, and of the most refined and valuable sort of not just any gold or tarnished gold or but of a pure gold, something that is undefiled and pure and reserved only for the highest royalty. So we see that he's crowned with glory, crown of thorns to a crown of pure gold. The fourth thing we see here as well is he is a preeminent king as a result of a joyful and glorious salvation. Look at verses four through six in your Bible, Psalm 21, verses four through six. It says here of the king, he asked life of thee. and thou gavest it him even length of days forever and ever." And verse five says, his glory is great in thy salvation, honor and majesty has thou laid up upon him. For thou has made him most blessed forever. Thou has made him exceeding glad with thy countenance. In verse four, it says, he asked life of thee, what kind of life? Well, I would submit to you that for us, that would be referring to eternal life and a life with a length of days that lasts forever and ever, never ending, eternal. We see that Jesus Christ is the God-man prayed for His resurrection. He prayed that God would raise Him from the dead. And three days later, sure enough, up from the grave, He arose, He arose, as the song says. He who has placed their faith and trust in His redeeming blood, we become partakers of that resurrection. So not only did Jesus Christ ask the Father to raise Him up from the dead, but that's a promise for you and I. that one day if we simply place our faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, one day He will raise us up. It's a wonderful truth that we see here. One day we'll put on our corruptible, we'll put on incorruptible bodies and we'll be raised up, we'll be resurrected just like the Lord Jesus Christ and praise God for the fact that the stone was rolled away. Jesus Christ is not a dead God. Many religions have a Christ on a cross. We serve a risen Savior. We serve a Savior who is in heaven today preparing a place for you and I. We serve a risen Savior who, praise the Lord, He got out of the tomb. He had all power over death. He had all power over and victory over it. And we see that it's a joyful and a glorious salvation because it gives a promise to you and I. Jesus Christ is deserving of all honor and glory because of it. It's a glorious salvation. In Psalm 115.1, the psalmist says, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake. You see, Jesus Christ, because of his glorious salvation, deserves to be lifted up. He deserves to be the joy of our salvation. Joyful are those who experience God's forgiving power. Whom having not seen ye love, in whom though know ye see him not, yet believing you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. 1 Peter 1.8. Now throughout scripture, there's hundreds of examples of joy. I just found a couple in the New Testament I thought were just wonderful to see. Remember when the wise men came and they saw the star, they had wonderful joy in their heart. we see that Jesus Christ gives the joy for salvation. We saw that when John the Baptist was in the womb and his mother came close to Mary, he leaped for joy. That one came close to home because a lot of times my wife, she's pregnant here and she's doing about five weeks or so. And you'll put that hand on that belly and you'll rub and then you'll feel a kick. And you'll feel just a little like, Daddy, what are you doing? And he's pushing on me. And then you'll tap it and then he'll go to the other side and then he'll come back. And then you'll tap it again. I don't know what they're thinking, But my son is playing with me. I'm tapping on his thumb, I talk to him and he moves around. He can hear my voice. And it's amazing the fact that I wonder how it would have felt for John the Baptist's mother who was in the womb and the mother when she came close to Mary, the baby leaped with joy. Now, when the angel appeared, he said he brought good tidings of joy when he appeared to Mary. Jesus said that when a single sinner is saved, there is joy in heaven. When the good and faithful servant was applauded, well done by the Lord, he said, enter into the joy of the Lord, that joy of salvation again. The disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Ghost. Paul speaks of joy unspeakable as he traveled to visit the churches. He always said, count it all joy. Always there was joy in his heart because of the joy of God's salvation. The writer of Hebrews speaks of Christ, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12 verse two. So we see the joy of a glorious salvation. Sometimes we have to think to ourselves, are we joyful Christians? Are we thankful for the God who has saved us? Are we thankful for the things that we get that we don't deserve? Are we thankful for the fact that we didn't get what we do deserve? Are we thankful Are you joyful as a Christian? I was talking to my dad the other day, and it saddened me because of the conversation. I noticed something, and you know one thing I love about Pastor Tice and about this church? I believe we have some of the most joyful and thankful Christians anywhere that you can find. And I praise this church for that, and I think it's a wonderful thing. But we don't need to stop. I was talking to my dad on the phone and he said, you know what, sometimes we get discouraged because a lot of times amongst Christians there's no thankfulness. It's almost as if we get to a point, and I've been there in my life, where we feel like we kind of deserve to be blessed. We kind of deserve to get a little extra money from another Christian once in a while. We kind of deserve to get the free luncheon, or the free buffet, or the free barbecue. We kind of deserve to have people house friends for us. And we kind of deserve, and we kind of deserve, and we kind of deserve, the only thing we deserve is hell. But Jesus Christ was so good to us. We ought to have a thankful spirit. You know, it's sad, my dad said, because even sometimes you go to church and you'll never get any thanks. And we don't do things for thanks, but there should be a thankful spirit amongst Christians. There should be a thank you card. There should be, I prayed for you. There should be an encouragement card. There should be something that you send out to people just to show them that you love and you're thankful for them and you care for them. You know, sometimes my dad said, you know, he works in a secular job. People who care for only for themselves, who are there just there to make the big bucks, make the six figures. They're just there to work. Now they love their job, but they're not saved. They don't understand joy unspeakable. They don't understand thankfulness from God. But you know what? You do something good at work and, hey Yan, good job. Hey, and hey, by the way, he gets an email. Hey, and by the way, this, and then you go to church and nobody thanks you. Nobody shakes your hand. Nobody ever encourages you. You know, Christians need encouragement. The Lord Jesus Christ encourages us through his word, but it's good to have a good handshake once in a while. It's good to have a hug from a brother or sister in Christ. You know, every year, well, this is my first year teaching, but every year I've taught at Christmas, Last year, it was an amazing thing. You know, every day you go in and day in and day out, and you pray for your kids, and you love on your kids, and you discipline your kids, and then you discipline your kids, and then you discipline your kids, and then you talk to them in the hallway, and then you tell them you need to work on your math, and you need to work on your math, and one plus one equals two, not three. And it's been three months that I've been telling you that. And then after that, it gets busy and busy. But you know, I'm thankful that I teach the kids I teach. I'm thankful for kids that I don't have to worry that they're going to be smoking, or drinking, or looking at pornography in the bathrooms, or they're dealing drugs in the backyard, or doing anything like that, or graffiti in my car. Don't get any ideas, kids. All right? You know, we go to school, and I'm just thankful for a wonderful attitude among kids, a wonderful spirit of thankfulness. And you know, on my desk right before Christmas, it was an amazing thing. I didn't actually have a desk anymore. It was full of chocolates that was 60% dark and more, and books on cooking, and cooking utensils, and all sorts of things. You know what? And it showed me that, you know what? My kids truly are thankful. And you parents have been a wonderful part in that. And you know, I just came into the classroom and I had tears rolling down my eyes because I said, you know what? These kids are special. These kids are being taught a thankful spirit. And I think that's important as Christians. Are you joyful? We have some really joyful kids, sometimes too much at our school, but are you a joyful Christian? We're the example for our kids. What are we showing them? Are we showing them I hate my life. I hate teaching you. This life is hard. Get in the car, kids. Just do this, kids. Just do this. We've got to go to church. We've got to hear that long-witted preacher again. And now there's that young preacher who's even more long-witted than the old preacher. And then they just keep preaching, and they keep preaching. They tell me how I'm doing wrong. They tell me I can't watch this TV, and they can't tell me I'm wearing this clothes. And then you realize, are you joyful? Do your kids see joy in you? Do sinners and the lost see joy in your life? Your joy can be a light that shines to a lost and dying world. Fifth thing we see here is we see a preeminent king as a result of consistent companionship. Look at verse seven. Verse seven in chapter 21. For the king trusteth in the Lord and through the mercy of the most high, he shall not be moved. As a man, Christ Jesus, God Almighty, okay, get this, as a man, he placed his complete and utter dependence and trust on God the Father. He knew that God heard his prayers and was confident in God's ability. His holy confidence in his Father was the reason for his victory. Do we have a holy confidence in our Heavenly Father? Jesus Christ, the King of the universe, the I am that I am, placed His complete trust on God the Father. We should as well. Not only did He place His full trust, but He was also determined not to be swayed or to be moved by His circumstances. He was steadfast all the way to the end. You see, we live in a day and age today where even though the economy may be falling apart, the very foundation of this great country we live in may be beginning to collapse. The world leaders are slowly all merging to form a one-world government and a one-world religion to usher in the Antichrist and the end of the world and Armageddon and all those things. But I'm pleased to announce tonight that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Our God still remains consistent, consistently aware of everything that goes on, and is not swayed by the world, but only moved by the prayers of his children. He is that I am. What is the I am that you need in your life today? Jesus Christ, when Moses was there at the burning bush, he said, who shall I say that sent me? He says, I am that I am. It's an interesting statement. If I went up to the pastor and I said, pastor, who should you say sent me? And he says, I am that I am, I would think, I'm not you. Who is that I am? Well, I am is, I am that refuge that you need in your life. I am the answer to your prayer. I am the savior of your soul. I'm the keeper of your soul. I'm the one who's gonna give you rest. I'm the one who's gonna give you comfort when you need it. I'm the one who's gonna protect you from all harm. I am that I am. That Jehovah is the Lord Jesus Christ that I am. As we keep looking here, the second main point here was we saw that as we observe into this royal throne room of God's palace, we saw a preeminent king. But the second thing we see is we see a powerful king. Look at verse eight here. We see a king who is all-knowing, all-seeing, and all-powerful. In verse eight, it says, Thine hand shall find out all Thine enemies. Thy right hand shall find out those that hate Thee. We see that God is everywhere at once. He knows the evil that is going on. He is aware of the trials that you're going through, and He is aware of the hatred of men towards Him. You see that He said that the world will hate you because of Jesus Christ. And it says that he knows the minds of men. In 1 Chronicles 28 9, it says, for the Lord searches all hearts and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts. If thou seek him, he will be found of thee. But if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off forever. Hebrews 4 verse 12 says for the word of god is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrows and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart the lord jesus christ the word of god knows the thoughts of the heart Sin has no escape from the fiery piercing eyes of the Lord Jesus Christ. Nahum 1.6 says, who can stand before his ignition and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire and the rocks are thrown down by him. Malachi 3.2 says, but who may abide the day of his coming and who shall stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fuller's soap. Fuller's soap being the idea of theirs is you take a dirty cloth that's soiled and stained and you put it in the water basin and you put the soap and you rub and you scrub. He will purify all everything. He'll purify the minds of sinful men and he'll purify them with fire. Revelation 6, 15 and 16 is a sobering thought. It says, and the kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief captains and the mighty men and every bondman and every free men hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb. In verse 8, we see that his hand shall find out all the enemies. His right hand shall find out those that hate him. Verse 9, we see a king who has holy judgment. Now, we may say, well, I thought God was love. And I thought God was peace and joy and happiness. And God will fill that hole in your heart that you need. I understand that concept. God is love. God sent his son Jesus Christ as the ultimate payment for love. He said, I love you when he sent Jesus Christ to this earth. He is the God of peace. He is the God that will bring you a peace that passes all understanding. When the storms of life and the situations and the hurricanes of turmoil come into your life, God gives you a peace that passes all understanding. God we saw is the God, the author of joy, the one who gives you joy unspeakable. When times are rough and the economy is falling apart and things are not happening, you can still have a jump in your step, you can still have a song in your heart, you can still have the joy of the Lord in your life. but you can't only balance those attributes of God. The fact is true that God is holy, not just once holy, but thrice holy. Holy, holy, holy. Before in the throne room of God, right now as we speak, ever since the beginning of creation, when God created those cherubims, those cherubims, they said they have those six wings, and two of the wings cover their face, and two of them fly, and two of them cover themselves. And the fact of the matter is those four cherubim, all day long and all night long for the last 6,000, 7,000 years since the earth was created and since heaven was created, all they have said is, holy, holy, holy. And they are perfect beings. And all they can say is, holy, holy, holy. Who are we as an ant that crawls around the sand to stick up her little antenna to a human and say, You can't do anything to me. And then we stick up our little fist at God and say, you can't do anything to me. He is holy. He's to be revered. He is a perfect judge and he will judge sin. You say, but that's not fair. It doesn't make sense. I thought God was love and peace, and I don't want to hear about God's wrath and the fact that He's going to cast humanity in the lake of fire, and that if you sinned once in your entire life, that you deserve hell. It's not fair. It's not fair. It doesn't make fair. It doesn't have to be fair, but it is just. You see, God's character is perfect and is governed by righteousness and holiness. If you went to a local judge here, and you went to a judge, and then all of a sudden you were just sitting in the courtroom there, and you were watching the proceedings going on, and then all of a sudden you saw a mass murderer, an ex-con, and then he just murdered again, and he stole, and he killed people. It was horrific what he did. And then the judge came and says, Well, you know, you look like you turned a new leaf. I mean, I know I saw you walk the little lady across the street last week. I saw you put those little dollars in the Salvation Army little bucket at Walmart. You know, I think, I have a feeling, I feel like you're going to turn around here pretty soon. You are free to go. we would be outraged. We would get up and say, judge, that is a improper judgment. We would say, what a wrong judge. We need to vote him out of there. We need to kick him out of there. He's not right for letting a sinner go free, a mass murder go free. And our sins, sometimes we play it out, we candy coat and say, well, my sin is not that bad. You just compare yourself to the 10 commandments, 10 simple commandments. And yet we break them all. God said that thou shalt not bear false witness. And we tell fibs, we lie sometimes. Sometimes we just kind of cover our tracks and cover the truth. We lied against a holy and a perfect God. And the Bible says, thou shalt not commit adultery. And we say, well, maybe I've never done that before. You know, I'm a pretty good guy. You know, I try to stay clean. I try to do what's right. I try to stay pure. But Jesus Christ said to men, he said, if you look on a woman to lust after her, you have committed adultery in your heart. What man has not done that? What lady has not done that? Coveted somebody else's wife. Adultery of the heart. It's punishable by death in the Old Testament. So we have broken every single one of God's Ten Commandments. And the Ten Commandments, all it is, is a picture of God's character. It's a picture of God's holiness and pureness. and we break them all the time. So just because of one sin, we do deserve to go to hell because we've broken that holy and perfect righteousness. God cannot be in the presence of sin. It is completely against him. It is completely against his character. So God has holy judgment. It says in Hebrews 10, verse 30 and 31, it says, for we know him that has said, vengeance belongeth unto me. I will recompense, said the Lord. And again, the Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall in the hands of the living God. 2 Peter 3, 9 said, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long suffering to us were, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. So although there is judgment, there's still hope. There is still hope from a God. See, the fact is that God, He cannot and will not do the wrong thing. He will always do what is right. He said that His holy law is there to condemn sinful man and condemn them to a literal lake of fire, but that He's not willing that we should go. That shows His love and His compassion for the souls of man. And He's just waiting for a Christian to knock on their door. He's just waiting for a Christian to pass out a tract. He's just waiting for a few good men, a few good young ladies, a few elderly folks, a few folks that will put a stamp on a mailing committee and send something out with the gospel on it. He's just waiting for it. He's waiting for it so that all should come to repentance. He's not willing that any should perish. He doesn't want anybody to go there. But the fact still remains, as we see in Revelation 21.8, but the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and the murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake of fire, which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." So we see a powerful king, a king who is righteous in judgment, but is also merciful in mercy. We see also that there is a king who is seated on his throne. A king who is seated on his throne, verse 11 and verse 12. For they intended evil against thee, they imagined a mischievous device which they are not able to perform. Therefore, shalt thou make them turn their back when thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon thy strings against the face of them. We see here that although all these things are happening in Scripture and all these things are happening around us, God is still on His throne. God takes notice of everything that happens to His children. He is very aware of the attacks that come both from outside the church and inside the church. Even though sinful man may have the wickedness to imagine, the cunning to devise, the malice to plot mischief, they fail every time in their ability to overthrow the main target, the Lord Jesus Christ. So you see, sometimes in life, there's some battles that we'll lose. Sometimes sin overwhelms us, and sometimes we just get discouraged. And sometimes Satan puts his 30-06 scope on us and he just starts shooting. But the fact of the matter is, though sometimes we may lose the battle, the Lord Jesus Christ has already won the war. He has already won the war. You see, in 1 Corinthians 15, 55, and 57, many of you have memorized, it says, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. but thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord, Jesus Christ, through our Lord, Jesus Christ. So we see the first thing we saw was a preeminent king. Then we saw a powerful king. And then now on the last verse, it just ends so sweet, just like honey to the tip of the tongue. We see a praiseworthy king. In verse 13, be thou exalted, Lord, in thine own strength. So will we sing and praise thy power. He is a King that is to be exalted and to be praised. In Psalms 118 verses 14 through 17, we see, the Lord is my strength and song and has become my salvation. The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous. The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly. The right hand of the Lord is exalted. The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly. I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord. The psalmist is consumed by exalting and praising his savior. The second thing we see is not only do you have to exalt and praise him both every morning, both throughout the day, and whenever we have the opportunity to come to church, you exalt and you praise the Lord Jesus Christ. He is to be sung about and he is to be worshiped. to be sung about in Revelation 5, 11 through 13. It says, And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts, and the elders, and the numbers of them was 10,000 times 10,000, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. and every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such are as in the sea and all that are in them heard i saying blessing and honor glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the lamb forever and ever we need to sing about them It doesn't matter what kind of voice you have, whether you can join the choir, you can sing a solo, but you ought to have a song in your heart. A lot of times when times are tough, you just sit in your car, it's a good idea to put in a good gospel CD. It's a good idea to hymn a couple of hymns. It's amazing what it'll do to your life just by that music. changing your soul. That music affects the way you think. That music affects the way you look at life. That's why it's so important that you're careful about what you listen to at home and what you let your kids listen to. Because there's good type of music and there's the wrong type of music. There's godly music, which is ordained by God Almighty, and there is the wrong kind of music, sinful music and worldly music, which is pushed by the agenda of Satan and his demons. The right type of music exalts the Lord Jesus Christ and lifts Him up. The wrong type of music exalts man, exalts the voice of the man, exalts, look at me, it's all about me, it's all about... I can sing." And you say, well, what about Christian contemporary? Aren't the words good? Aren't the words about it? But if you look at those album covers, don't tell me that a guy with his hair down to here, wearing tight clothing and an earring and a tattoo, singing about Jesus. and his love for me is godly." That's right out of the pit of hell. Satan would love for you to think, oh, that's good. Oh, you can listen to that because it talks about Jesus. It doesn't uplift the Lord Jesus Christ. All it does is uplift man and say, look how good I am. We need to sing about Him. Join the choir on Sunday. Sing about Him. Sing from their pew. You know what? Something Pastor Shore said to me, and I was thinking about it, and you know how many times? How many times do I come to church? Okay, I'm on staff here, okay? I'm church staff. I'm part of Liberty Baptist Church here, okay? And I come to church, Jan LaMassal, supposed to be spiritual, spiritual, as they say in the South, all right? Supposed to be spiritual, and you come to church, Holy, holy, holy, Lord. Mm-hmm. Left an R in my shirt. Almighty, risen from the dead. Okay, we do that I'm trying to be humorous, but don't we do that we come to church and we sing the same song and we sing following Jesus Pastor wrote that it's a sacred hymn. Yeah, not defile it like that He's sitting right here. I can't say anything bad about it. I Following Jesus. Are you following Jesus through life's tribulation? Following Jesus. We've been singing that song over and over again. Are you doing it? Are you singing it? The other day, Pastor Short, when we're singing in the choir, it's a wonderful song, and I don't remember all the words, because I'm nervous now, but we sing several songs, and it says, it all belongs to you. The whole song repeats it, I don't know how many times, 30 times. It all belongs to Him. It all belongs to you, Lord. It all belongs to you. It all belongs to you. It all belongs to you. Guess what? It all belongs to Him. So that's why we sing about it. And sometimes we just read through the words and we just sing it and sing it and sing it. But do you mean it? Does it all belong to Him? Does the car you drive belong to Him? Does the house you live in belong to him? Does your wife belong to him? Does your husband belong to him? Do your kids belong to him? Do the little, the bratty kids in my class, they belong to him. I better treat them right. And that makes sense. Everything is my wallet belong to him. My credit card bills, they belong to him. Okay? It all belongs to Him. He is worthy to be praised. He is worthy to be sung about. And He is worthy to be worshiped. He is so worthy to be worshiped. And a lot of times we get the wrong idea about worship. We think, praise and worship music. I'm gonna move my body to the Lord. I'm gonna worship God. Worship means this, okay? In the Old Testament, this is what worship meant, okay? When you see God and you come into the presence, every Bible character that has ever been exposed to God's glory did this. They got fell prostrate before God, laid down like this. That is what worship means. It is signifying that we are nothing and He is everything. That is what worship does. Now, I know some of you may not be able to do that in the morning, but it would kind of be good for us to get into the practice while we can. You know, if you just, if you can, get down on your knees as much as possible. And we look in the Old Testament as well, at one point they said they bowed their heads and worshiped. And that's fine as well. But if you can, you need to get on your face before God. because that'll just humble you and say, God, I cannot go through this day without you. You are everything. Why? Because it all belongs to him. It all belongs to him. So we see here the return of the king in his throne room. We saw three things. We saw first of all, a preeminent king. Then we saw an all-powerful king. And then finally we saw a praiseworthy king. It's a wonderful picture for us to be and catch a glimpse of that throne room of God when the Lord Jesus Christ comes back and after he has won that victory. A wonderful psalm to keep in your mind and a wonderful song to sing about. It all belongs to him. Let's go ahead and pray. Father, thank you for this opportunity given us to come before your throne room tonight. And Lord, it is with holy hands and with holy hearts and righteous lips, Lord, that we come before you, Father, because we recognize that you are everything. It all belongs to you. We're not deserving of anything, Father, but hell itself and the fiery lake. But Father, I thank Thee that You made it fit to send Your Son, Jesus Christ, 2,000 years ago, to suffer and to die and to pay for our sins, to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. I thank You, Father, that three days later, He rose from the grave and He was seen by hundreds, proving that He was God, proving that You were everything to Him. Father, help us be everything for You. Amen.