Blessed Assurance

"Blessed Assurance"

Psalms 103:19-22

Psalm 103:19 The LORD hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all.

20 Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.

21 Bless ye the LORD, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure.

22 Bless the LORD, all his works in all places of his dominion: bless the LORD, O my soul.

Introduction: Ever have any problems or trouble in your life? Well, that's kind of a silly question, of course you have. A better question might be, "Have you felt overwhelmed by your problems and troubles?" That seems to be where a lot of folks are at now-a-days. They call or come by and share their frustrations and their sense of futility as they try to deal with what is going on in their lives. In my experience the problem for most of them is not their view of their problems and troubles but rather there concept of who God is.

ILL - Some of you will know the name of J.B. Phillips, an Anglican bishop who wrote a number of books. One of his most popular books was a paraphrase of the New Testament. One of his other books was entitled Your God Is Too Small. In that book, Phillips exposed the views of God that we all hold to that are woefully inadequate. For example, there is the "cosmic policeman," a view of God in which he is standing just around the corner, waiting for us to slip up and break the rules. Or, there is the "indulgent old man," a little senile but very friendly, or the "frantic manager." In this view, God's got sweat on his brow because the world is in such a mess, and he is trying to hold it all together. It is likely that every single one of us here this morning has a conception of God that is, at least to some degree, skewed. Our views of God may be distorted because of our background, or our experiences, or perhaps simply because of our ignorance. And we don't realize that we are actually worshiping an idol. Much of our lives and much of our time are spent worshiping a figment of our own imaginations, and what we fail to realize is that God exists independently of our views of him. The God who is there exists as he is regardless of our woefully inadequate ways of thinking about him. And our goal as Christians ought to be to bring our understanding of God in line with the truth of who he really is.

I. HIS REIGN IS PERENNIAL

a. His throne is fixed

The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens - He has "fixed" his throne there. This is the ground of the security that his blessing will be imparted to those who fear him, and to their children's children, or that it will be transmitted to coming generations. God is a Sovereign. His throne is fixed and firm. His dominion is not vacillating and changing. His reign is not, like the reign of earthly monarchs, dependent on the capriciousness of a changeable will, or on passion; nor is it liable to be altered by death, by revolution, or a new dynasty. The throne of God is ever the same, and nothing can shake or overthrow it. Albert Barnes

b. His throne is forever

How long is forever? Someone said, "If you counted all the stars in the universe and then counted all the grains of sand in all the oceans of the world and added the numbers together then eternity will have only just begun!"

Bill Kryger: "If a sparrow flew to the Atlantic Ocean and filled his little beak with water; and then flew all the way across the United States to the Pacific Ocean and emptied his beak, then rested for 1,000 years; Then he flew back to the Atlantic, filled his beak, flew to the Pacific, emptied his beak; and continued this process until the entire Atlantic Ocean was emptied into the Pacific Ocean, resting for 1,000 tears between trips, and then put all the water back, after he was done not one day of eternity would have passed!

Moses calls God: Deuteronomy 33:27 The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms...

Paul refers to God: 1 Timothy 1:17 Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

It should also be noted that God is eternal and we are temporal and God hath given to man a short time here upon earth, and yet upon this short time eternity depends. Jeremy Taylor