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[0:00] Please turn with me to Psalm 93 for the reading of God's word. Psalm 93.

[0:34] The floods have lifted up their voice. The floods lift up their roaring. Mightier than the thunders of many waters. Mightier than the waves of the sea.

[0:46] The Lord on high is mighty. Your decrees are very trustworthy. Holiness befits your house, O Lord, forevermore. This is God's word.

[0:59] Thanks be to God. Good morning, everyone. Oh, look at that. We have an active audience. Amen. My name is David Suarez, and I will be speaking about Psalm 93 today.

[1:15] Ironically enough, though it's only five verses, the most complicated sermon I've ever had to figure out. So I am praying for the Holy Spirit to give me guidance as I go through these five verses.

[1:27] But as a real quick plug-in and reminder, as many of you know, the Seek and Share Truth Conference is this week, running Thursday through Sunday. I hope you'll attend, and if you haven't yet, please grab a ticket.

[1:38] And I've got some pamphlets if you want to be able to sign in for your free ticket. We have a chance for people to be really blessed by a great deal of deep teachers and preachers and evangelists who have dedicated their entire lives and the safety of their lives to preaching God's word and teaching his word to people who don't believe in it.

[2:01] In this case, I actually will also be teaching about three sessions on the philosophy of atheism and the issues with it, the impossibility of Islam by its theology, and the beauty of the Trinity as it explains love, marriage, and the nature of miracles.

[2:18] So I say all of that not just as a shameless plug, although it is more than that. It also ties to my journey and very deeply to this sermon. You see, like many of you, I was raised in a Christian environment, and like some of you, I was raised in an environment that definitely was focused on experience.

[2:37] And experience is not a bad thing. God is a personal God, right? But there's more to God than just these wild experiences. There's also just the development of a personal relationship, a meaningful one.

[2:49] And while I was part of the youth ministry at my church as a kid and a teen, as a member of the junior Bible quiz competition, I'd memorize tons and tons of Scripture and go out to competitions to recite the Scripture.

[3:02] And though I had these powerful experiences of God, or at least so perceived, when I would leave the church, being raised in it, when I would leave the church, I would still struggle with the same issues.

[3:16] Pride, suicidal ideation, and pornography. All those years. And it doesn't matter how powerful your experience of God is if you seem to struggle with all these sins.

[3:27] And struggle is a strong word. To be completely honest, I didn't struggle because struggle implies a fight. I didn't fight it. I allowed for about 18 years of my life these sins and these states of being to run amok in my life fully and completely, with no real desire to change them.

[3:43] And worst of all, I feared living in a way that made Christ known to people, sharing the gospel with others. Even when I went to college, my first year was not a good one for my sanctification at all.

[3:55] I had faith in Christ as my Savior, and I really believe that. I do believe that I had faith in Christ as my Savior. But when it came down to my Christian witness, I didn't join a Christian group on campus at all my first year and a half of college.

[4:11] Continued on in porn use without a little fight at all. And just about gave up trying to defend Christian ethics in any meaningful way. As a matter of fact, I would sometimes take the ethics and values of my atheist professors and try to Christianize it a little bit to make it feel more comfortable.

[4:25] I pretty much gave up on trying to stand for truth at a certain point in my life. And I even joined a few marches here and there. I joined a march for science back in college with a group of people who actually denied the biological science of male and female, oddly enough.

[4:43] I didn't think about it that deeply at the time. But hopefully you will more than I did. I also went to parties. I had no business attending. And explained to an atheist friend of mine when he told me, the God of the Old Testament seemed pretty horrifying.

[4:57] This is a real text from seven years ago. I kept it because I have to remind myself that there was a real time where I said this. When he said the God of the Old Testament so violent and horrible, I said the God of the Old Testament was terrifying.

[5:11] And he didn't really get the struggle of man. Oh, this is tough. Honestly, it was a good thing he became Jesus.

[5:24] Otherwise, we never have seen how tough life is for us. That is a real thing I said to somebody. By the way, there's at least three heresies there. Sibillianism or type of modalism, Marcionism and historianism.

[5:38] I gave at least three heresies trying to explain God to one of my best friends. Technically five heresies, but I'm trying to give myself back then a little bit of grace. But realistically, it was closer to five.

[5:50] Five heresies in one text message. That's pretty impressive. Let that, number one, be a response to any of you who say, Well, David, you're just a theology guy, right? You're just a theology guy.

[6:00] You're the kind of person who just studies theology. You understand God. Some of us just don't get him that deeply. I hope that made it really clear to you that I was not a theology guy.

[6:11] I was raised in the church and gave that as an answer to somebody. But not just that. I loved God and I really loved Jesus as my Savior. But I didn't understand who God was.

[6:23] I didn't at all. I never made an attempt to actually ask any deep questions about God to get some real answers. And I wouldn't submit everything to God. My ethics, my values, my proclivities, and my persuasions, and my goals and aspirations.

[6:39] I didn't lay it all before the throne because I didn't see God as king. Savior, yes. But king, not a chance. So bad that, again, trying to evangelize, I would give heresies.

[6:53] If I saw Jesus as not only my Savior but also my Lord, I would have ran after him. I would have submitted my whole being and breath and existence to him, every thought and idea.

[7:05] I would have thrown away the philosophies and foolish worldviews I had obtained through college and instead seen the perfect all-knowing God as far more wise than myself. God is king.

[7:20] Act like it. Because I didn't. I saw Jesus as a Savior and somewhat of a cosmic vending machine going to him when I needed something personal.

[7:32] Not even something according to his will. I didn't even start praying that way yet at the time. I just prayed he would give me things and not to have a relationship with him as my king. He changed me.

[7:44] And it all began when I started to see him as king of all creation and king of me. So all of that to say, number one, don't worry.

[7:57] I'm not preaching heresies today like I would have made the mistake of doing all those years ago. Number two, you can learn about God too. Theology is for all of us.

[8:07] No one is a theology guy. Theology is the rational contemplation of God as he is. And I'll explain that as we go through this sermon. But join with me as we pursue the beauty of God the king, majestic, mighty, and mine.

[8:26] Please bow your heads with me. Father God, we thank you so much for your perfect goodness in all things.

[8:37] Your mercy, God, that you would forgive us for our horrible errors and thinking. That you would still pursue us even when we reject and rebel against your perfect will.

[8:53] Lord, I pray that this sermon and this text of your scripture would move us to see you as king and to act like it.

[9:05] In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. Amen. So the first section of our sermon is just the first two verses, which will be God the majestic king.

[9:17] And before we dive into this psalm, it's really important that we understand, again, I'm a teacher, so I'm naturally going to have some teaching components here and there. Don't worry, there's no homework afterwards.

[9:27] Not this time. Maybe next time, though. Something that's really important when you're reading the Bible is to ask about the context. When was it written? Who was the author? What's their historical reason for writing?

[9:39] What is God conveying about the whole biblical narrative through it? That is the context. And that's not optional, by the way. That's necessary. If you're reading the Bible, look for the context.

[9:50] The why and the where and the what and the who and the how behind each word. It's necessary. That being said, I'll give you a freebie today about the context of this one. Don't worry, you won't have to do a whole lot of historical research.

[10:03] Scholars suggest Psalm 93 was written sometime around 539 B.C., likely during or just after the Babylonian exile. So the people of God are already kicked out of their territory, out of their land.

[10:15] This was a time that the first temple had already been destroyed, and also the second temple had not yet been built. That's important because the final line of the psalm speaks of God's house. Yet at the time of writing, there was no temple.

[10:29] What is the psalmist thinking when he speaks about a house that isn't present, to the eye at least? No throne in Jerusalem, no land they could call their own. And their story at this point is one of defeat, disorientation, and loss.

[10:41] And yet this psalm is not a lament. Look at it. The Lord reigns. The Lord is robed in majesty. Your throne is established from a vogue. This is not a lament. This is not a cry of despair.

[10:53] This is a declaration. And not just any declaration. This is the opening of the enthronement psalms, from Psalm 93 to Psalm 99, a series that lift our eyes to see God as king.

[11:04] No matter what the nations say. No matter what circumstances say. God is king. So let me ask you. Who is God to you?

[11:14] That question is at the very center of all of redemptive history throughout the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, from creation to the cross to the new creation. Every moment of your life, every heartbeat of the universe turns on that question.

[11:28] Who is God? A.W. Tozer even said that's one of the most important questions a Christian could ask. How you think about God. So let's look.

[11:38] It says in this psalm, the Lord reigns. He is robed in majesty. The Lord is robed. He is put on strength as his belt. Right away we see God reigns.

[11:49] That's not a metaphor. That's a truth claim. He is not campaigning for office. He's not asking for your vote. And if you put a vote in for it, it wouldn't matter. Because he is king. He simply reigns.

[12:00] No democracy in this case. And thank God. Because we don't need a democracy for the perfect king. Before there were kings and nations, before there were rules and dominions on earth, before there was you and before there was I, there was a king.

[12:14] God. Not temporarily, not conditionally, but eternally king. So what does it mean for God to be king? Well, number one, a king is a sovereign, which means that he has the right to rule over his domain, however he sees fit.

[12:28] What is the domain of God? Obviously the whole universe, the whole created order. So what kind of king is he? How does he decide to rule? Well, the psalmist doesn't leave us with too many questions.

[12:40] He actually explains that very next. The psalmist tells us he is robed in majesty and strength. These are his garments. It's not like something that he borrows from somebody. These are essential to his being.

[12:52] He does not put on majesty like a king on earth does, right? Trying to put these purple robes on and a crown to appear majestic. No, no. God is majesty. All other things try to grasp at it.

[13:06] But God is majesty. And yet, let's not gloss over this word too quickly. As Christians, we do have a habit of using words that we kind of understand, but we don't really know how to define it if somebody asked.

[13:18] Let's go over what majesty is. As we see majesty, we might think of crowns, castles, a royal way from a balcony, something like that. But in Hebrew, the word here is geoth.

[13:29] And it's not that simple. Geoth doesn't just mean beauty or splendor, but it could. It can mean arrogance or pride as well, or even the swelling of an ocean. I was so confused seeing this word.

[13:41] I thought, how on earth could you apply this word to God in a positive sense and kings and oceans in a negative sense? Well, while it was hard to find an explanation in the commentaries, I realized that in the Hebrew, this word simply refers to an overflow of what is present in the subject.

[13:57] So, when the Psalms say that God is robed in geoth, what does it mean? It means that he overflows with all that he is. Just as the oceans swell and overflow with water and their depths with raging seas, and just as pride overflows from the arrogant kings and rebellious peoples of the world, majesty overflows from God.

[14:19] Every drop of his being is power and perfection and beauty and glory. majesty overflows from God like a river eternally. So, what is in God that overflows as majesty?

[14:34] And this is where we get into theology proper. Some of you might have suddenly had a spike in your heart rate and blood pressure the moment I talked about theology proper, and you might be thinking, oh, that's for nerds, academics, seminary people.

[14:47] But let me stop you right there. I think this is a horrible mistake to make, and I get a little offended when people make this mistake. Just imagine for a second that I said to you, I love my wife.

[15:00] And you said, oh, that's great. What do you love about her? And I said, oh, I don't know. I mean, I'm not sure. And then you said, oh, well, you intend to learn eventually.

[15:12] I'm not one of those husbands. It's not for me. Would you actually think that I legitimately love my wife if I said that? Of course not. You would think, okay, clearly either you have a very wrong definition of love or you have a very unhealthy relationship, right?

[15:27] And by the way, I do love my wife. And there's a lot of wonderful things about her. Praise God. But what I'm saying is, imagine if you apply that all the more to God. God, if you, every single time you have a chance to learn more about God, shrug it off and say, I'm not one of those kind of people.

[15:46] How dare you? He is God. You laugh when it's about the example of a wife, but God is so above and beyond anything on earth. He is our creator, our king, our Lord, our savior, our God.

[16:00] And you would shrug at the opportunity to speak about who he is. How dare you? There is no theology guy or lady. We are pursuers of the almighty.

[16:12] Every single one of us. So don't you dare. Take your faith seriously. Take God seriously. Let's just look at a few facets, a few angles of who God is.

[16:27] First, God is perfect. There's no error in judgment, no flaw in his character, no failure in his promises. God is omnipotent. He has all power, but not a power that corrupts like it does with human kings.

[16:39] Power that cannot fail. Power that sets out and accomplishes all that it desires to do. God is omnibenevolent. He is all good, all loving.

[16:51] He desires mercy, not destruction. He invites the sinner, warns the wicked, and draws near to the humble, according to the New Testament. We see a God who is essentially loving.

[17:01] And this cannot be said, by the way, of any other religion. Because all the other religions of the world, their models of God, presents a God who is either a monad, right? Just one being one person.

[17:12] Before creation, in Islam, even in some forms of Mormonism, in many forms of Hinduism, in a lot of these other religions, they show a God who is alone eternally. That's not the case with Christianity.

[17:24] Before there was ever a creation, there is a God who exists as three persons in perfect, loving, eternal fellowship and communion. Our God is essentially loving.

[17:37] And he was not dependent on us for that. He is just. He gives to each what is due per their nature. And God is necessary and self-existent. He is not dependent on any of us or anything in creation to be all that he is.

[17:51] God simply is. And we can take peace in that. All of that, his perfection, power, goodness, mercy, might, self-sufficiency, when it pours out, it comes out as what we call majesty.

[18:03] Because the sight of it, even the contemplation of God in all those ways, is so glorious and splendid and beautiful, a thought that we're left in awe at the majesty of God.

[18:18] Why does this matter? Because if God is king, and if the created order is his domain that he rules by his perfect, wonderful, good, loving nature, and he reigns from everlasting, his throne is from old.

[18:35] It wasn't given to him. It is his. Then we cannot live neutral. You cannot say to that kind of king, I sort of follow him. He is king.

[18:48] Accept it. You must either submit or resist. But there is no middle ground on this. Accept the fact of reality that God is king. Or live a lie. There's nothing else.

[19:00] Too many of us even say, for those of you who are parents, that you want your children to know God. And trust me, I saw it with my students at my job. And I'm sure I'll see it with my students at my next job as a teacher for Bible.

[19:14] So many parents want their kids to know the Bible and follow God. But then they themselves don't. They want their children to stay committed to God, but they don't commit themselves to God.

[19:25] They don't see God as king. So why would their children? They want them to be strong in their faith. But parents will so often, and adults as well, in general, flinch and wobble at every single cultural wind and new worldview and new ideology that introduces itself against the truth and the throne of God.

[19:44] If you're constantly changing all of your beliefs because some new headline came out, or because some new TikTok person, which you hold as a theology source for some reason, asserts a new theological doctrine, how could you expect your children to be steadfast and steady?

[20:04] How could you expect your wife or your husband to be steadfast and steady if you're not rooted in God as king? And we wonder why people walk away.

[20:15] If you want your family, your children, your co-workers, your friends to take God seriously, you do it. Do it first. God is king. Raise your kids to run to that everlasting throne.

[20:28] Show them what it means to fall on your face and say, here I am, Lord, send me. Teach them to see his strength in the laws of nature, his mercy on the cross, his majesty in the created order.

[20:39] Show them not just that God exists, but that he reigns. If God is king, act like it. But what are some of those things which get in the way of us seeing God as he is, as king?

[20:53] And what should our response be to these obstacles and difficulties? Well, thank God, the second section actually answers this because God's word has an order to it. It's amazing. The second section is God the mighty king.

[21:08] In the second portion of the psalm, we see a clear shift in focus from the heavens and all things beforehand to the earth, from God's eternal throne to the restless waters below. And not just any waters.

[21:18] It's the floods. I love the language in this psalm. In just two verses, the word floods and waters is mentioned five times, right? Two verses, five mentions. That's not accidental.

[21:29] That's emphatic, okay? The psalmist is trying to paint a vivid picture. Waves rising, roaring, lifting up their voice in defiance, swelling with power. But what are these floods and waves referring to?

[21:42] Earlier, I told you that Hebrew word for majesty, geof. It could apply to arrogant, prideful peoples and kings and also to oceans. I think that's very clearly on purpose here. It's making a contrast between God as the majestic king and all these prideful, arrogant nations and waves.

[22:00] The psalmist is combining those ideas of pride and swelling and raging into one image here. The raging floods represent both the kingdoms and empires and nations and rebellious peoples of the world who rebel against God's rule and the chaotic forces of disorder and suffering in our world.

[22:18] Be it people or sickness, be it loss or oppression by power, the raging floods represent both. We see this imagery very clearly throughout the scripture. Isaiah chapter 17, 12 to 13 even uses similar language with thundering and roaring.

[22:33] It says, The thunder of many peoples, they thunder like the thundering of the sea. The nations roar like the roaring of mighty waters. The nations roar, but he will rebuke them and they will flee far away.

[22:47] The same language, thundering, roaring, mighty waters. It applies to nations and empires as much as it does to the chaotic creation. In both passages, along with Psalm 124, 2 through 5, where it uses very similar language, floods represent more than nature.

[23:06] They represent enemy nations and prideful rulers. So when Psalm 93 talks about the roaring floods, we should see that it's not just some sort of description of a difficulty you might have had at work this one time.

[23:21] Right? It's this nature, the nature of reality itself. It's chaotic. It's chaotic. And the arrogance and sinful ways of man. It stretches from the noise of Babylon to the foolishness of Pharaoh, the propaganda of Rome, the roar of every modern movement that defies God's kingship.

[23:38] This is a very old flood. And the floods are loud. Listen again to the language in this psalm. The floods have lifted up their voice. The floods lift up their roaring.

[23:49] It goes on to say, mighty than the thunders of many waters. It's getting louder and louder. This is not a tranquil water. This is a storm. This is deafening, drowning, thrashing, surge of chaos.

[23:59] And that's what it often feels like. Doesn't it? You turn on the news. You open your phone. You walk through your college campus, your workplace, your neighborhood voices everywhere.

[24:11] Loud voices. Contradictory voices. Hypocritical voices. Culture screaming about what's right and wrong. Who's good. Who's evil. Everyone marching, protesting, arguing, shouting over one another.

[24:23] In Christians, often silent. Or silence. Very often. You begin to think, how can I hear God in all of this noise? The waves of our time are not just natural.

[24:34] They're ideological. They are loud. And I love the use of roaring and thundering in this psalm. Because a waterfall, for example, if you're next to a waterfall, that's around 90 decibels.

[24:46] Continuously. That's like if you had a motorcycle revving up at max volume right next to you, but constantly. It drowns out and deafens everything else. The crashing of the waves in the sea is deafening.

[25:00] Disorienting. And there's two dangerous deceptions we can have about these waves because the psalmist describes them as mighty. They're very clearly dangerous and very powerful and very loud. So we can fall into two errors here.

[25:12] Either we can see these waves as our savior and follow them. Thinking, oh, this movement and this government and this person will be our savior. Because, you know, this wave is crushing all the people I don't like.

[25:23] And since it's crushing all the people I don't like, therefore it's from God. Well, hold on. Because waves change the moment the wind blows a different way. So it might be crushing the people that you dislike.

[25:35] It might even be crushing the people who are in the wrong. But if you put your faith in that, it'll turn around and crush you too. Don't follow the waves. Follow the one who stills the waves.

[25:46] But we can make the same opposite mistake. Don't think it's just following. You could also fear these waves as your ultimate destruction. You could really say, oh, no, this is all around me. It's going to destroy my livelihood.

[25:58] It's trying to silence all of us. Everything about it will end all that we hold dear. No, your greatest fear should be sin and separation from God forever.

[26:10] That is your greatest fear. Jesus even says this. Fear not the one who destroys body, but the one who can destroy body and soul in hell. Have your priorities right.

[26:23] But I will say, I get it. Floods are terrifying. And the floods of our world are horrifying and loud.

[26:33] I understand, especially when it comes to fearing the waves instead of following it. I understand how fearful and terrifying it can be. They are raging and so loud. And there are just so many voices. Wars and changing economies.

[26:44] Killing our brothers and sisters across the sea. But there are no marches for them. No free, free Christian lives. Only free, free Palestine. Because nobody cares if a Christian gets killed. Nobody cares if a Christian child gets abducted and used as a sex slave for 20 years.

[26:57] Because, of course, it's a Christian. Who cares if they get raped for 20 years? Who cares if a young child gets beheaded in an Islamic nation, right? Because that's not part of my agenda. Who cares if Christians get silenced?

[27:10] Who cares if the Chinese Communist Party silences and alters the Bible so that it's able to make it about the Chinese Communist Party receiving glory and not God? In the Chinese Communist rendition of the Bible, when it comes to Jesus and the woman who's caught in adultery, they changed it so that Jesus would be the one stoning the woman.

[27:30] To emphasize the party's no-tolerance policy on error or stepping out of line. And if you're not one of the Christians who will use the state and government-changed Bible, then you're thrown in prison or persecuted.

[27:43] But no, nobody ever talks about that because if any other group that's not Christian raises up a voice or a complaint or a concern, no matter how minimal, it's national or international news.

[27:55] Because nobody cares about Christians. No news, no sound, not even a peep. Of course, because they roar and thunder over everything that God stands for. You see marches and rallies and protests for things people don't even understand using terms they don't even know how to define.

[28:09] For causes they have never actually studied based on a headline of articles whose content they never took the time to actually read or fact-check. A cacophony of meaningless gongs and clanging cymbals. And even if we take this as just a description of the natural disorder of creation, instead of the raging empires and political movements, there is sickness and fatigue and famine and starving and heartache and break and death and loss.

[28:30] And there's just so much sound everywhere. It's sound. Be still. Be still, said the God in Genesis chapter 1, who hovered over the deep chaotic waters of creation.

[28:44] Be still, said Job, in awe of the God who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea. Be still, said the psalmist in Psalm 89 verse 9. You rule the raging sea.

[28:57] When its waves rise, you still them. Be still, Psalm 107 verse 29 declares, He made the storm be still and the waves of the sea were hushed. And our psalm says it too.

[29:13] Mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea, the Lord on high is mighty. But how do we know that He still stills the waves today?

[29:28] It says His throne is everlasting, so that applies to today. Could it not? It must. We know it does because Jesus Christ is that same God. Remember what we just talked about, trampling over the waves of the sea and speaking to it to still the waters.

[29:43] Look at Mark chapter 4, 37 through 40. A great windstorm arose and the waves were breaking into the boat and skipping ahead a bit just for time. But Jesus awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Peace, be still.

[29:58] And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. The Lord on high is mighty. Matthew 14, 25 to 31, we see Him again. Yes, the same God.

[30:09] In the fourth watch of the night, He came to them walking on the sea. The same God who tramples the waves then is the God we see in the New Testament. Our Lord, our King, Jesus Christ.

[30:24] So, the God who hovered over the waters in Genesis, the God who tramples the seas in Job, the God who silences the oceans in the Psalms, is the same God who walked on the water and whispered to the waves, and even to you, Be still.

[30:37] So, church, do not fear the floods, nor should you chase their power in worship, their practicality. If you think this sermon doesn't apply to you, you're exactly who it applies to.

[30:48] And if you think this sermon does apply to you and you feel conviction, good job. It also applies to you too. But you at least have the self-awareness, so I guess, you know, one extra point for that. That's good. Don't let the loudness of the waves drown out your faith.

[31:02] There's only one voice that matters. And that voice is mightier than the waves. Your King is always mightier. When everything is roaring, He is still King.

[31:14] And He says to you, Even now, be still and know that I am God. So rest in that. Believe in that. Worship Him like the King He is.

[31:24] God is King. So act like it. Because this third and final section of the Psalms shows us the practical implications of that stillness, that unshakable hope that we have when we trust in the God who reigns forever.

[31:40] In this third section, God, my King. I love this section. Your decrees are very trustworthy. Holiness befits your house, O Lord, forevermore.

[31:52] We've just seen that Jesus is not only King of creation, but the same God who calms the seas, silences the storms, instilled the chaos in both Testaments, the one who reigns forever, the King of kings and Lord of lords.

[32:04] He's our Lord. I'm going to keep on emphasizing that focus there. Our. Mine. He is majestic and He is mighty, but you must make Him yours.

[32:19] So, when Psalm 93 decrees your testimonies, in Hebrew, that's idah, your covenant faithfulness, is trustworthy. The faithful in exile, remember, these are, this is the psalmist writing in exile.

[32:33] They're not even in their nation. How could they be so hopeful? They're not even in their own kingdom. They don't even know they have a Davidic king that's going to take on all the promises. How can they be so trusting in God?

[32:45] What decrees, what covenant faithfulness, is the psalmist thinking about when he says that? And then holiness befits your house. It seems paradoxical. What house? There's no temple.

[32:57] Well, let's look at the decrees first. The Abrahamic covenant. I will establish my covenant to be God to you and your offspring after you, Genesis 17. And in your offspring, in your seed, shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.

[33:13] They're holding on to that. The covenant was foundational. This covenant with Abraham was the foundation for everything else. that those who call upon the name of the Lord would always belong to him.

[33:25] Even in exile, they could say we are still his people. Not because they were faithful, but because God is. The Davidic covenant. I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

[33:35] Your house shall be made sure forever before me, says the Lord. And Isaiah 9, 6 through 7, speaking about this king who shall rule over the house of David, the government shall be upon his shoulder and of his kingdom there will be no end.

[33:48] There's a whole lot more in there, but for the sake of time, I have to summarize some of this. The throne of David fell, but God's kingship remained. The people longed for a coming king, one from David's line, one from David's house, who would bring peace and justice.

[34:05] And Psalm 93 proclaims, his throne was never in danger. It never was. Your ideas might be in danger, but his throne never was. The Mosaic covenant.

[34:16] If you will obey, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, Exodus 19, 5 through 6. Though exiled, many clung to God's Torah. His testimonies, his statutes, his decrees are not forgotten.

[34:27] They remembered his mercy in Deuteronomy 4, verse 31. The Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers. This is a God who remembers. This is a king who cares.

[34:41] And finally, the often, for some reason, forgotten priestly covenant with Phinehas in the Old Testament. It shall be for him a covenant of a perpetual priesthood in Numbers 25, 12 through 13.

[34:51] The temple was gone, but they prayed in hope that holiness would once again adorn God's house. They still held hope that God would bring about his house again to be a holy house.

[35:07] Now, holy, again, to clarify some definitions, means to be set apart for sanctified purposes or specifically for God's own pleasure and use to be set apart and distinct.

[35:20] So they were waiting for a day that their temple would be rebuilt, potentially. But there's also another definition to house that people forget in the Scripture. It often speaks of David's house, not literally his home, but his lineage, his descendants.

[35:35] So they were holding out hope in a way that they didn't know quite yet, perhaps, that there would be somehow someone from God's house and God's lineage. How on earth could that be possible?

[35:46] That is also somehow from David's house, David's lineage, someone who's somehow a son of God and a son of David. Well, spoiler alert, that's obviously our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

[35:58] The same king, always and forever. Jesus is the yes and amen to each of the covenants before. In the Abrahamic covenant, he is the seed through whom all nations are blessed, according to Galatians 3.16.

[36:12] He is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. In the Davidic covenant, Jesus is the king whose throne will never end, according to Luke 1. In the Mosaic covenant, Jesus is the perfect law keeper, the true treasure of God, so that we might be treasured in him.

[36:26] None of us can say, by our own works, we are the treasured possession of God. But Christ alone is the eternal treasured possession of his Father.

[36:39] And by being in him, we can know that we are treasured, adopted children of God. And in the priestly covenant, Jesus is our great high priest who intercedes forever for us at the right hand of the Father, according to Hebrews chapter 7.

[36:53] And now you are the house of God. Beauty is it doesn't take, it doesn't really matter which definition you take for house, be it the physical place where God's presence dwells or his lineage.

[37:06] It actually doesn't matter which way you define house here, because according to the New Testament, you, if you belong to Christ, are a temple of the Holy Spirit. You are the physical place where the immaterial God chooses to make his dwelling, where he rules from within.

[37:23] His holiness still befits his house. If you wish to say, oh, house refers to lineage, we are his adopted children. It still applies to us either way. Yet again, the yes and amen of Christ.

[37:36] Holiness still befits his house, which means, and this is heavy, holiness must befit you. You must make the God you serve a personal king to you.

[37:49] He's already king, but you must make him your king. You must submit to the one who already rules because he rules. I can say that God is not just a king.

[38:01] God is my king. He lives in me. He makes me a house for his presence. So church, hear this heavy, very heavy call.

[38:11] Be holy because he is holy. Make yourself set apart from the ways of the world, the foolish philosophies of the modern man who tried to rebel against the king that is designed and ordered all things.

[38:27] Do not fall victim like I did in my foolishness. Please don't. Be grounded because his word is trustworthy. Be loyal because he is your king.

[38:40] Wives, encourage your husbands to seek after God, not casually, but deeply. Husbands, lead your wives to love the Lord, not lazily, but joyfully. Parents, answer your children's questions.

[38:51] Please answer your children's questions. And if you don't know how to answer their questions, trust us. You have pastors. You have friends. You have people here who could help you to learn the answers.

[39:02] And you have the internet. We're blessed with tons and tons of resources to know how to answer the questions of our children. And if your kids or if children in your family are not asking questions, teach them how to ask those questions.

[39:14] Teach them to think deeply about the God who rules and reigns. Don't let God be some sort of secondary aspect of your life. He is the king. Act like it.

[39:27] Please let that not be true of us that we put God in second place. And sometimes, some of my students and even some of their parents and even some of my closest friends would ask me why I go out of my way to speak about God.

[39:42] To atheists and Muslims and Buddhists, it seems like they're a lost cause is what some say. Well, it's because of one of the most upsetting facts that I live with daily and think about daily.

[39:56] There are those who worship demons that kill them with more devotion and sacrifice than you offer to the God who gives you life. I see it constantly.

[40:08] I see young Muslim children who can recite the first three surahs, the first three chapters of the Quran by the time they're four. Now, yes, it's empty recitations from a book made by a demon, but yet they still do it with earnesty.

[40:23] And they actually tell their kids to do it. They teach their kids how to respond to Christian theology by the time they're like five or six. Because those parents, for a non-existent God, take it seriously.

[40:39] It's upsetting that we worship the one true God who rooted himself in history with a people historically, who took on human flesh, who made himself known, who healed the sick and did so many mighty works and died for us, our wicked, evil, vile sins, and yet defeated death, sin, and the grave and rose again.

[40:59] And for this God, our willingness to serve him is non-existent. Please don't let that be true of you.

[41:11] Please. If you're discouraged, if theology seems too heavy, know this. You don't have to know everything to run after God. If we knew everything, we wouldn't be running after him. Just start by trusting what he's already promised.

[41:25] Ask questions and search for the answers. Ask your pastor. Do what you need to do. God is our king, and if we love him, we should desire to know him and to learn more about him every single chance we get.

[41:38] The psalmist trusted God's decrees, and so should we. So here is what the same king, Jesus Christ, promises in the New Testament. Assurance of salvation if you have true, living, abiding faith in him, according to John 5, 24.

[41:55] Your sin fully paid, Colossians 2, 13 through 14. It was nailed on the cross like we saw in our worship song. Jesus saved those who rest, abide and believe in him, John 15, 4 through 5.

[42:06] You were sealed and helped and aided by the Holy Spirit, Ephesians 1, 13 through 14. And he will never leave you and is with you to the end of the age. Matthew 28, 20.

[42:17] This is what Jesus Christ, our Lord, promises to those who call him king and savior. So as we close up for today, I pray that you would all be able to see the majesty of God, the might of his power above all the empires and powers and dominions of our world, the beauty of calling him my king.

[42:39] I hope that you saw the benefits of seeing God not just as savior, but king of your whole life. Submit everything, every single struggle, every single question, every single concern, every single doctrine, everything to him.

[42:55] Let him sanctify you. Do not rebel like I did. Let him sanctify you. He will. Learn to fight for the faith he's provided for us.

[43:08] Don't be apathetic. It's one of the biggest issues across Christian schools and Christian churches. We just don't care. Learn to care. We don't have room to not care about a God who died for us.

[43:23] Apparently he cared enough to die for us, a horrible, torturous death, but you can't take the time to actually look and see all that God has to offer.

[43:37] We are the house of God. And it says holiness befits his house. Take that seriously. Let the weight of that sit with you every single moment of every single day.

[43:52] Though the kings and empires of the world roar, and loudly do they roar. Though false religions grasp for the majesty of God foolishly, our God is the majestic king. Though we might have waves, rage, and disorder, and sickness, and loss surrounding us, our God is the mighty king.

[44:12] He rules over the waves because he made them. And when life breaks, when hearts ache, and when the world groans, our God is a personal king. A king who put on flesh.

[44:22] though majestic eternally. A king who put on a crown of thorns, though so mighty that no such pain would ever befall him in his eternal state as God.

[44:35] A king who died to make you cling. He's not just a king. He is my king. And I pray that each and every one of you could leave today worshiping him as your king.

[44:50]  Let us pray.