What Does God Call You?

 

Occasionally, and for any number of reasons, a mother sheep will give birth to a lamb and reject it. If the shepherd tries to return the lamb to its mother, it may even kick its baby away. Once a ewe rejects one of her lambs, she never changes her mind. These lambs are called, ‘Bummer Lambs.” To look at one it will seem its spirit is broken, and unless the shepherd intervenes, the lamb will die.

 

So, the shepherd takes the bummer lamb into his home, hand-feeds it, keeps it warm, and holds it to his chest so the lamb can hear his heartbeat. Once the lamb is strong enough, the shepherd places it back with the rest of the flock, but that sheep never forgets how the shepherd cared for him when his mother rejected him. When the shepherd calls for the flock, the bummer lamb is the first to run to him.

 

Which segues us into today’s primary text in which the Good Shepherd Jesus tells all humanity – the lonely, the content, the frightened, the lost, the sick, the healthy – all humanity: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.” “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. . . . .I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me.” (John 10:1-3, 11,14)

 

Have you heard His voice? And in hearing it, are you following the Shepherd?

 

I’ve preached this message in the past, and I thought it good to bring the message again to remind us of God’s great compassion for all men and women, including all who are ‘bummer sheep’ – rejected by others but called alongside of the Good Shepherd. And so, the title of this message is:  What Does God Call You?

 

What does God call all who are His own sheep because of their obedient faith in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus the Christ? Well He calls us many things and we don’t have time today to cover but only a few. So let’s begin:

 

First, and not necessarily in order of importance, God calls us by our name.

 

Think about that for a moment. Among the most important words in any language is a person’s name. And of the several BILLIONS of people on this planet, God knows YOUR name. And mine.

 

The devil will whisper in your ear from time to time – or maybe all the time – God doesn’t know you. Or if He HAD at one time known you, He’s forgotten you because of your sins. But the devil is only doing what he does best: Lie.  And he is bold-faced lying when he says God doesn’t know you or He’s forgotten you because of your sins. But the truth is, God never forgets His own children. To do so would be contrary to His very nature.

 

I recently saw a church marquee on the 141 as I was driving home. It read, “Satan knows you by your sin. God knows you by your name.”  In other words, Satan calls you “Drunkard” or “Drug Addict” or “Adulterer” or “Thief” or ‘Liar’ or ‘whatever.’ But God calls you by your given name. He calls you John, or Barabara, or Cheryl, or Paul, or whomever. He calls me ‘Richard.’ I’ve heard Him in my thoughts many times, perhaps especially when I’m confused and seeking His guidance, or unhappy and seeking His comfort.

 

There is in the Old Testament an easily missed detail regarding the High Priest’s clothing. Whenever he entered the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle to minister on behalf of the nation, he wore a chest covering on which were the names of the 12 Tribes of Israel: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Asher, Dan, and so forth. (See Exodus 28:29). In other words, the High Priest brought the NAMES of each of the Tribes as a memorial before the Lord.

 

But that was only a picture of a much greater memorial our Great High Priest Jesus would do in the eternal tabernacle in heaven. Listen to this text in Isaiah: (Isaiah 49:15-16): Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me, And the Lord has forgotten me. Can a woman forget her nursing child, and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you. Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands . . .”

 

Think a moment about that. Jesus has YOUR NAME inscribed – not tattooed, but engraved – with those Roman spikes, engraved into His hands to forever serve as a reminder of our covenantal relationship with Him each time He looks at His hands, and each time He appears as our high priest before the Father.

 

Yes, Jesus is our great High Priest. We find that reference throughout the New Testament book of Hebrews.  Here are only two examples: “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:13-15 

 

Hebrews 9:11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

 

Your High Priest knows your name! Remember what the Lord Jesus told us: “He who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep . . . and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. . . . I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. . . . .I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me.”

 

Do you ever hear Him speak your name, especially while in prayer? If you’re His sheep by obedient faith, and you haven’t heard Him call your name, then you’re not listening quietly enough. If you belong to God through faith in His Son, God talks to you by His Holy Spirit all the time.

 

You may remember the story of Elijah in the cave, hiding from Jezebel. You can find it in 1 Kings 18-19. What happened to that great prophet has direct relevance to the likely reason we so often do not hear God speak to us, even when He speaks our name:

 

19:11 “[God] said [to Elijah], “Go forth and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord was passing by! And a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of a gentle blowing. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. And behold, a voice came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

 

What are you doing, Elijah? Did you get that? In the quietness of the gentle blowing, Elijah heard God call his name!

 

It’s difficult – I wonder if it is even possible – to hear God speak when we’re so busy with noise around us and noise in our minds. That’s why we must often get alone and quiet with God. 

 

God calls you by name. What else does He call the true Christian? He calls us ‘Forgiven.’

 

Many of you know the name, Sandi Patty. She’s been singing about Jesus for decades. But what some of you might not know, a few years after marrying her first husband, Sandi committed adultery against him, which ultimately led to their divorce.

 

In time and through confession of her sin to God, Sandi found forgiveness at the foot of the cross, forgiveness at the foot of the cross which every soul on earth must find if they hope to receive eternal life, and with it, a new start.

 

Sandi’s history of adultery makes the lyrics of a song she wrote and performed years later even more powerful. Let it serve as a reminder to all of us of God’s mercy and forgiveness – despite our failures, as serious as some of them have been:

“I hear You calling out my name as only You can do
Your voice it covers all my shame, the old You turned to new
No matter how things look to me
You see a destiny, a perfect promise

 

“You call me beautiful, You call me righteous
You call me worthy of Your Son's own precious blood
You call me holy, You call me strong at my weakest
Forgiven and pure, You call me Yours

 

Some might think what Sandi sang here is wishful thinking that God could forgive her with her simple confession and repentance – heartfelt as it was.

 

But ask St. Peter who denied his Lord with a curse if God forgives the penitent. Ask St. Paul, who viciously murdered Christians, even travelling to distant cities to carry out his horrific persecutions against the faithful – ask him if God forgives the penitent. Ask the formerly demon-possessed, Mary Magdelene, now known as St. Mary Magdalene if God forgives the penitent. Or the unnamed harlot at the well in Samaria. Or the millions of Christians throughout the last two thousand years who brought their sins to the foot of Calvary. And ask ME, guilty as I was of the grievous sins in my past.

 

And, with the lyrics of Sandi’s song still in our thoughts, another thing God calls us is Beautiful.  The Song of Solomon has been long understood by theologians across the two millennia as a picture of Christ and His Bride, the Church. Listen to these words that remind me of the Good Shepherd calling His sheep home with Him:

 

The Bride says, “My beloved [i.e. Christ] responded and said to me, ‘Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come along. For behold, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. ‘The flowers have already appeared in the land; The time has arrived for pruning the vines, And the voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land. ‘The fig tree has ripened its figs, And the vines in blossom have given forth their fragrance. Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come along! (Song of Solomon 2:10-13)

 

Oh, why does anyone delay coming alongside Him when He invites us so lovingly to do so? How does a person come alongside? By faith. By trusting that Jesus is longingly waiting for you to bring yourself and all your needs, all your doubts, all your remorse, all your sorrow for your sins, bring them all to Him. Just do it by faith. Ask Him to forgive you and simply tell Him, “Jesus I Come to Thee.”

 

Some of you might even know the words to this old hymn:

 

Out of my shameful failure and loss, Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come;
Into the glorious gain of Thy cross, Jesus, I come to Thee.
Out of earth’s sorrows into Thy balm, Out of life’s storms and into Thy calm, Out of distress to jubilant psalm, Jesus, I come to Thee.

 

Oh come. If you’ve come before, come again.  Come often. And if you’ve never come, come now. Just come!

 

What does God call you? He calls you by your name. He calls you Forgiven. He calls you beautiful. What else does God call you? He calls you a precious son or daughter.

 

Listen to Paul write to the Christians at Galatia: “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a child; and if a child, then an heir through God.” Galatians 4:4-7)

 

When the Lord Jesus taught us the “Our Father’ prayer, the word, ‘Father’ is not just a fill-in word, something to make the prayer sound homey and encouraging. No, Jesus taught us to pray to our Father because He gave birth to us through the blood of His only begotten Son. We have been born again, or as St. John tells us in the third chapter of His gospel, we have been born ‘from above.”  

 

Every true Christian has a new ‘heritage, a new spiritual DNA. He tells us it’s so through Paul in his letter to the Christians in Corinth: (2 Corinthians 5:17) “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”

 

As far as God is concerned, you are not the same person you used to be before you gave yourself to Jesus. Before your commitment to Christ, you were NOT a child of God. Those are not my words. Those are the words of Scripture. Many of you know them: (John 1:10-13) “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

 

But now as a child of God your record of sins has been forever bleached clean. Because of your faith in Jesus, you are now and forever will be a child of God.

 

So, as I bring this message to a close, I will ask you this all-important question: What does God call you?  Today we looked briefly at four things He calls every Christian: He calls us by name. He calls us forgiven. He calls us beautiful. He calls us His precious son or daughter.

 

There are so many people – even perhaps in this chapel – so many of us have been bummer lambs, rejected and broken. Ahh! But the Good Shepherd has taken us to Himself, holds us tightly to Himself, and feeds us from His own hand.

 

I close with God’s beautiful promise through Isaiah: “Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, In His arm He will gather the lambs And carry them in His bosom; He will gently lead those with young.”

 

And with the lyrics of another song of promise:

Are you tired of chasing pretty rainbows?
Are you tired of spinning round and round?
Wrap up all those shattered dreams of your life
And at the feet of Jesus, lay them down.

Give them all, give them all, give them all to Jesus
Shattered dreams, wounded hearts, and broken toys.
Give them all, give them all, give them all to Jesus
And He will turn your sorrows into joy.

 

Amen

I Will Follow Him

 

Our text for today is Psalm 116:5-8, 12-14 “Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; Yes, our God is compassionate. The Lord preserves the simple; I was brought low, and He saved me. Return to your rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. For You have rescued my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. . . What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits toward me? I shall lift up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. I shall pay my vows to the Lord . . . in the presence of all His people.”

 

So, according to the psalmist, what has God done? He tells us in verses 5-8: The Lord has dealt bountifully with us; He has rescued our soul from death, our eyes from tears, our feet from stumbling.

 

And what, then, ought to be our response? He answers that question in verses 12-14: “What shall I render to Him for all His benefits? I will call upon Him and pay my vows in the presence of everyone.”

 

So, let’s start with verses 5-8. Any honest Christian who’s taken the time to review what their lives were like before they were born again through faith in Christ’s sacrificial atonement for their personal sins – any of them will quickly and willingly proclaim to others “the excellencies of Him who has called [them] out of darkness into His marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:9) They will strive to tell others walking in darkness of God’s incomprehensible truth that He “demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  (Romans 5:8) 

 

Nevertheless, while we were actively living life our own way, doing what was right in our own eyes, caring not about God or His commandments – despite it all, God delivered His own blessed Son to die a torturous death for us so WE would not have to experience His wrath for our sins.

 

It always causes me to wonder about the true state of someone’s salvation when they brush off my suggestion to routinely ask God to reveal to them their sins – as if to ask Him that question is unworthy of their time.

 

But the truth seems clear to me: Anyone who claims to be a follower of Christ but is unwilling or reluctant to ask God to show them their sins – they’re deceiving only themselves about their salvation. Those who are unwilling for God to reveal to them their sins do so only because they really don’t want to know their sins. They like living as they do and being as they are.

 

An unwillingness for God to reveal their sins is the very antithesis of the attitude of godly men and women described in Scripture. They WANTED God to show them where they were failing Him, so they might repent and please Him. For example, we’ve looked in the past at David’s prayer in Psalm 139, and we do it again to make the point “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting!” Psalm 139:23–24

 

Job cried out to God: (Job 13:23) “How many are my iniquities and sins? Make known to me my rebellion and my sin;” and Paul counseled the Corinthians: (2 Corinthians 13:5): “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves.”

 

So, tell me how a Christian who doesn’t routinely ask God to reveal to them their sins – how is that person walking with Christ?

 

In his book, The Problem with Pain, CS Lewis writes: “We have a strange illusion that mere time cancels sin. I have heard others, and I have heard myself, recounting cruelties and falsehoods committed in boyhood as if they were no concern of the present speaker's, and even with laughter. But mere time does nothing either to the fact or to the guilt of a sin. The guilt is washed out not by time but by repentance and the blood of Christ: if we have repented these early sins we should remember the price of our forgiveness and be humble.”

 

Repentance is the only means of forgiveness, and humility is the mother of repentance. Without humility we will never honestly repent – and let me reiterate the point: Without repentance there can be no forgiveness.

 

The first recorded words of Jesus in Matthew’s gospel was, ‘Repent’ (Matthew 4:17). And the apostle John warned his readers: “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.” (1 John 1:8-10)

 

Christian, this is critical for our understanding of who we are in Christ, and why being in Christ is so vital to our lives both now and in eternity. If we’re unwilling to let God show us our sins – past and current – then how can we truly rejoice in His rescue, as the psalmist in today’s text describes it? How can we begin to grasp how close to eternal death we’ve come? How can we really appreciate the tears He’s save us from and the disastrous life failures that never happened to us?

 

Listen, please. Unless we see our sins in HIS light, the psalmist’s follow-on verses about what we can render back to God will mean little to us and our answer to that question will be anemic at best: “And perhaps worst of all, our attempts at evangelization will fall flat because the joy of our rescue from the domain of darkness will be muted because we’re not entirely convinced our darkness was really that dark.

 

Listen to those verses in 5-8 again: “Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; Yes, our God is compassionate. The Lord preserves the simple; I was brought low, and He saved me. Return to your rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. For You have rescued my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.

 

Yes. Yes. God is gracious and compassionate well beyond our deserving. And it is worth our while to frequently call to mind our past lifestyles because when we do so with honest hearts we will be able to extrapolate – to deduce – where we’d be today if He had not SAVED us from a life of spiritual darkness.

 

Truly it is so, and please take time – lots of time and often – to think about how God saved us – saved YOU – from a lifetime of tears of regret, a lifetime of meaninglessness. He saved us from ending our lives like Solomon ended his, whose regrets bleed through that last chapter of Ecclesiastes: Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near when you will say, “I have no delight in them”; before the sun and the light, the moon and the stars are darkened. . . Remember Him before the silver cord is broken and the golden bowl is crushed, the pitcher by the well is shattered and the wheel at the cistern is crushed; then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it. “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “all is vanity!” (Ecclesiastes 12:1-2, 6-8)

 

And so, moving further through the text, the psalmist asks – and so should we: “What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits toward me? Shall we live like ungrateful recipients of His many and abundant gifts? Don’t we know how that hurts His feelings, just as OUR feelings are hurt when our children ignore us or hardly visit or call anymore, despite the many sacrifices we made to protect them and to prosper them?

 

May God forbid it that we – you or I – ever be ungrateful to God for rescuing us from a life of tears and loss and regrets and hopelessness.  And so, what shall we render to Him? The psalmist answers that question in the next two verses: “I shall lift up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. I shall pay my vows to the Lord . . . in the presence of all His people.”

 

To the Hebrews, lifting the cup of salvation was in a measure like publicly raising a glass of toast in joyous celebration and honor to the Lord. If we listen carefully, we can almost hear him call out to the Lord as his cup is raised: “Hallelujah, O Lord. You alone are worthy to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing forever and ever.” (see Revelation 5:12-13)

 

In other words, God’s saving acts ought to produce a public response of gratitude and praise in the hearts of those who are sensitive to and appreciative of His overflowing mercy. And how might the believer ‘flesh’ out that gratitude in public, not only with words but also with actions?

 

Here is only one set of guidance from Scripture: “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind . . . Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor . . . devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality . . . Do not be wise in your own estimation. Never pay back evil for evil to anyone.”

 

The truth is, we give a public response of gratitude to God when we live like Jesus calls us to live. And notice also from the psalmist, God’s saving acts produce within the believer an almost reflexive and spontaneous calling upon the name of the Lord. And that makes perfect sense to the believer: Psalm 8:1  O Lord, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth; Psalm 138:2 You have exalted your name and your word above all things; Proverbs 18:10  The name of the Lord is a strong tower; The righteous runs into it and is safe.”

 

What shall we render to the Lord for all His benefits toward us? Oh! How can we not give public thanks and public honor and public obedience to the One who has rescued our souls from death and our eyes from tears and our lives from incalculable regrets?  How can we not unashamedly call on His Name AND, how shall we not pay our vows to the Lord “n the presence of all His people?”

 

I want to pause here a few moments and consider the vows we have made to Him. What were those vows? To be honest, when we first committed ourselves to the Lord Jesus – whether as a young person or as an adult, most of us did not know what such a commitment meant. We only knew we were sinners and Jesus came to save sinners by releasing them from the debts those sins required. Many of us may have also promised Jesus we’d follow Him for the rest of our lives. But how many of us knew what that really meant?

 

I liken those vows to the vows young people make to each other at the altar of wedding. The most common marriage vow is: “I take you to be my wedded [husband/wife], to have and to hold, from this day forward,
for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, forsaking all others, till death do us part.”

 

When young people speak those vows, they usually have no idea where their lives together will bring them, and how those vows will be tested.

 

Many years ago, I met a woman whose husband of 55 years was suffering a slowly debilitating illness that had begun requiring near constant care. I remember asking her how she was coping and I’ll never forget her answer.

She told me she was doing well and then added: “I signed up for this when we first got married.” On the other hand, Nancy and I also know a woman who not very long into their marriage was diagnosed with a life-changing illness. But in her case, her husband divorced her.

 

To have and to hold, for better, for worse, in sickness and in health . . .

 

What are the vows that YOU have made to the Lord? The promises men and women make to each other at a marriage altar should not be different than those we make to the Lord at the altar of salvation. “For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, forsaking all other gods, till death brings me into Your presence.

 

And as many couples renew their marriage vows every 20 or 30 or 50 years, so the Christian ought to renew their vows to God – especially perhaps when life takes a turn for the worse as it often does as we age: “I will still follow YOU, I will still cherish you, I will still love you, in sickness and in health, in poverty and in wealth, and I will continue to forsake all that would pull me away from You.

 

Listen to another psalmist for whom life fell apart and yet renewed his vows to Him: “You have rejected us and brought us to dishonor, and do not go out with our armies. You cause us to turn back from the adversary; And those who hate us have taken spoil for themselves. You give us as sheep to be eaten and have scattered us among the nations . . . All this has come upon us, but we have not forgotten You, and we have not dealt falsely with Your covenant. Our heart has not turned back, and our steps have not deviated from Your way.” Psalm 44:9-11, 17-18

 

The prophet Habakkuk also maintained faithfulness to his vow, even though life for him was rapidly falling apart: “My inward parts trembled, at the sound my lips quivered. Decay enters my bones, and in my place I tremble because I must wait quietly for the day of distress, for the people to arise who will invade us. Though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vines, Though the yield of the olive should fail and the fields produce no food, though the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls, Yet I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.” Habakkuk 3:16-18

 

Just before the Lord’s arrest and crucifixion, He gathered His disciples and told them: “You are those who have stood by Me in My trials.” Biblical scholars believe the Lord was referring, at least in part, to the various and often deadly opposition He faced throughout His ministry during which they also were often in mortal danger. I believe the Lord is here thanking them for their perseverance in remaining with Him.  (Luke 22:28)

 

And I also believe it does no harm to the whole of Scripture if we modified this text to read Jesus’ words to His disciples – you and me: You are those who have stood by Me in YOUR trials.

Think for a moment of the emotional and physical traumas you’ve faced in life – and through which you have persevered. Those trials aren’t anything to be glossed over, are they? They represent your life, your blood, your sweat, and your tears.

 

At any time, you could have given up. You could have walked away from your earlier vows. But you didn’t – and even if you did at one time walk away – you’ve returned. Thanks be to God – you’ve returned.

 

What shall you and I render to the Lord? We will with God’s help continue to publicly lift up the cup of salvation, call upon our Lord, and continue to pay our vows to Him in sickness, in health, in poverty and in wealth.

 

In 1963 a young woman by the name of Peggy March sang what became a popular song. Her lyrics tell of her love for a young man – but as the song played in my memory while I was preparing this message, I realized the lyrics could very easily apply to our love for our Jesus Christ. Think on these words at the close of this message:

 

I love him, I love him, I love him/And where he goes I'll follow, I'll follow, I'll follow/He'll always be my true love, my true love, my true love/From now until forever, forever, forever/I will follow him/Follow him, wherever he may go/There isn't an ocean too deep/A mountain so high it can keep, keep me away/Away from my love.

 

Amen

 

 

Lift Up Your Heads

 

James 5:7-8 “Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains. You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near . . . As an example, brethren, of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. We count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful.”

 

During the past few weeks, we’ve looked at what it means to have a ‘fear’ of God – which is considerably deeper than simply being afraid of Him. The biblical idea combines reverence, awe, honor, and a deep desire to live in a way that pleases Him. As we saw last week, reverence toward God also leads to an increasing confidence in God. It’s the same kind of confidence that allowed Peter to sleep between two Roman guards as he awaited execution in the morning. It’s the kind of confidence that allowed Paul and Silas to sing praises and hymns in that filthy dungeon even while their feet were fastened in wooden stocks and their wounds still stinging from their beatings for preaching the gospel.

 

Today I want to revisit that point of a reverence-driven trust in God’s utter sovereignty over all nations and over all individuals within those nations –those who sleep under bridges and those who are powerful political leaders – and everyone else in between. In so doing today, I hope to remind us that nothing can happen on earth or in our private lives without His direct involvement.

 

Nothing can happen without Him – even if it be a car accident or cancer or a murder or the promotion of wicked people to governmental or religious power. Nothing can happen without God’s direct involvement – an involvement which always flows from His love, His kindness, and His desire for the salvation of souls – yours, mind, everyone’s.

 

Why am I emphasizing this point? Do you follow the national and international news? If you do, then I suspect you have at times become – as I have become – increasingly agitated and even fearful of where our world and our nation are rapidly headed – and how that direction will affect us and those we love.

 

It is clear to all those whose eyes have not been glazed over by the lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life that something is happening here. Something not good. Something menacing.

 

In 1965, after reading a chapter in Billy Graham’s book, World Aflame, his wife, Ruth Graham told him: “If God doesn’t soon bring judgment upon America, He’ll have to go back and apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.”

 

She said that in response to the sweeping sexual immorality, the violence, abortion, and growing lawlessness ravaging America in the 60s. But what would she say about America today?

 

In the short 60 years since that decade, America has slaughtered more than 60 MILLION babies in their mothers’ wombs – and so few in our country care. You know that’s true because Americans – even churchgoers – keep voting for proabortion politicians.

 

And it’s hard to find a movie or TV program that doesn’t treat adultery and fornication as normal fare, whereas virginity before marriage and sexual fidelity in marriage is portrayed as abnormal. And how can it be in this once-Christian nation that we permit the surgical and medical mutilation of boys and girls who want to change their anatomical sex? And Americans still vote for politicians who support that satanic evil.

 

Just watch what happens at the polls in a few weeks.

 

No wonder it’s becoming increasingly difficult for anyone with even a modicum of spiritual understanding to read today’s headlines and not become fearful or frustrated, or a little of both.

 

But please hear this word of encouragement from God Himself as He speaks to us through His infallible and inerrant word we call the Bible: Things are not falling apart. They’re falling into place.

 

I say it again for emphasis. Things are not falling apart. They’re falling into place. Scripture assures us through the prophets and apostles – “The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hands of the Lord. He turns it wherever He wishes.” (Proverbs 21:1)

 

The king’s heart and everyone else with political power – all of them, the godless and the godly – they’re each, moment by moment, at the utter mercy of their Creator who easily moves them like pieces on a chessboard according to His will and His plan. And they are abject fools to think otherwise.

 

I think of the godless pagan Pharaoh to whom God gave disturbing dreams that resulted in Joseph’s elevation to vice-regent of Egypt and which ultimately led to the salvation of the twelve tribes of Israel. I think of the wicked pagan King Nebuchadnezzar to whom God also gave disturbing dreams. Those resulted in Daniel’s elevation to leadership in the king’s court and to the protection of the Jews during their Babylonian exile.

 

I think of the pagan monarch, King Ahasuerus, or the Medo-Persian king Cyrus, or any of the dozens of powerful kings and rulers in Biblical and post-Biblical eras who were unknowingly moved by their Creator to do what His plan and purpose had decreed from eternity past.

 

One of my favorite examples of God’s chessboard is found in 2 Kings 19 and repeated by the Holy Spirit in Isaiah 37. When the brutal and ruthless Assyrian king waged war against Israel, King Hezekiah prayed in desperation to the Lord. And God, in response to Hezekiah’s prayer said this to the pompous Assyrian king:

 

(Isaiah 37:26-29) “Have you not heard? Long ago I did it, from ancient times I planned it. Now I have brought it to pass, that you should turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps. Therefore their inhabitants were short of strength, they were dismayed and put to shame; They were as the vegetation of the field and as the green herb, as grass on the housetops is scorched before it is grown up. But I know your sitting down and your going out and your coming in and your raging against Me. Because of your raging against Me and because your arrogance has come up to My ears, therefore I will put My hook in your nose and My bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way which you came.”

 

Tell me why anyone would think the king’s heart – ANY king or ruler – why they are not like channels of water in the hands of the Almighty?

King David captured the point of it all quite well when he wrote in the second psalm: (Psalm 2) “Why are the nations in an uproar and the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, “Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us!” He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them.”

 

It is a fearful thing to be scoffed at by Almighty God.

 

Kings, rulers, and the average individual citizens – God’s sovereignty reigns over all of them, checkmating even the vilest and most powerful.

 

Let me now drive home this point which I direct to all whose faith is in Christ for forgiveness, salvation and eternal life: God’s authority and sovereignty in 2026 have not faltered or changed one iota. He repeatedly declares it – probably so we don’t forget it: Malachi 3:6 – “For I am the Lord, I change not.” Hebrews 13:8 – “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” James 1:17 – “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”

 

Which brings us back to the text in the fifth chapter of James we started with: “Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains. You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near . . . As an example, brethren, of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. We count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful.” James 5:7-8

 

Brothers and sisters in Christ – Be Patient. Do not fret because of the growing evil in our nation and even the growing apostasy in so many churches. Be patient. The Lord Jesus is right at the door, and it is about to swing open. “Lift up your heads, O ye gates! And be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates! Even lift them up, ye everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory.” (Psalm 24:7-10) 

 

God has always used, and is still using, the rich and the powerful – even as He is using you and me – to bring about His purposes, one of which will culminate with the glorious return of the Lion of Judah – King Jesus – to set up His throne on earth; A throne Daniel saw in vision like a stone cut out of a mountain that crushed and scattered all the kingdoms of the earth and which then grew and filled the entire earth (Daniel 2). And what is that stone? Scripture tells us:

 

“The stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief corner stone

 . . . And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.” (Matthew 21:42,44)

 

That stone is the Lord Jesus Christ, our great God and Savior.

 

There is good reason – of course – why God repeatedly tells humanity in general and you and me individually of His unassailable power. Surely He does so to provoke and to mature reverence toward Him – fear, awe, wonder – and reverential confidence in Him. What the Lord Jesus told His disciples living under the heel of a despotic Roman government He speaks also to us living in 2026 as our culture and our political and religious leaders grow increasingly malevolent:

 

“These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling. They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me. But these things I have spoken to you, so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them.” John 16:1-4

 

He then closed His prophecy with this divine oath: These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation but take courage; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

 

Christian, because you are by faith ‘in’ Christ, you have nothing to fear from man or circumstances. Things are not falling apart. They are falling into place.

 

How then are we to live? As always, Scripture guides us. Listen again to James who opened this epistle with a call to patience: “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1:2-4)

 

Listen also to Peter: (1 Peter 1:13-16) “Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

 

Now to John: (1 John 3:2-3) “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”

 

Fixating on Jesus and walking in holiness are not God’s suggestions to His children. They are His commandments because it is only by living in and striving toward holiness will we find His peace – peace that surpasses all human understanding.”

 

Christian, be patient until He returns. Strive for holiness until He returns. “The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains. You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near

 

And live evangelistically, even now, in our old ages in which Almighty God promises us fruitfulness Psalm 92:12-15 “The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; Planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, “The Lord is upright; He is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.”

 

Christian, we are almost done. We are almost home. Keep at it. “God is [and always will be] our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change and though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; Though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains quake at its swelling pride.” Psalm 46:1-3

 

Things are not falling apart. They are falling into place. Lift up your heads. Our redemption draws near.