Do You Know My King?
Sunday, July 09, 2006 – AM
By Pastor Jim May
We are living in a world gone mad. Who can deny that the word of God in Isaiah 5:20 is coming to pass before our very eyes? "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" In these last days it sometimes seems that evil is prevailing. It seems that the voice of the true church has been nearly silenced, as men will accept anything before they will hear the truth. Even those who are in the church want to hear only that part of the Word of God that will fit into their chosen way of life.
As we draw ever nearer to the second coming of Christ, I sometimes wonder if many will be left who will hear Him call their name to come away with Him to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. I know that I talk about this often, but I can’t help it because I believe that Jesus is coming much sooner than many people believe. I’m really amazed that He hasn’t come already.
My calling, to preach the gospel, to pastor this church, and to lead as many people to Christ as I can, will not allow me to be silent. I am compelled to shout it from the pulpit, from the street corner, to whoever will hear – JESUS IS COMING SOON; WATCH AND WAIT; PREPARE YOURSELF FOR THAT FINAL JOURNEY TO SEE MY KING. I’m watching and waiting anxiously for His coming. I just have to see my King!
Do you know my King? Do you know Jesus the way that I know Him? Let me tell about my King! Let me use the words of another great preacher and try to describe My King to you.
He is the King of the Jews – He is the King of Israel – He is the King of Righteousness – He is the King of the Ages – He is the King of Heaven – He is the King of Glory – He is the King of King and the Lord of Lords – DO YOU KNOW HIM?
He is a Sovereign King – His limitless love cannot be measured – He is enduringly strong – He is entirely sincere – He is eternally steadfast – He is imperially powerful – He is impartially merciful – and He is Immortally graceful – DO YOU KNOW HIM?
He is the greatest King to ever cross the horizon of this world – He is God’s Son – He is the sinner’s Savior – He is the centerpiece of civilization – He is unparalleled – He is unprecedented – He is the loftiest idea in literature – He is the highest personality in philosophy – and He is the only one qualified to be the All-sufficient Savior – I WONDER DO YOU REALLY KNOW HIM?
He supplies strength to the weak – He’s available for the tempted and tried – He strengthens and sustains – He guards and He guides – He discharges the debtors – He delivers the captives – He heals the sick – He cleansed the lepers – He blesses the young – and He regards the aged. He defends the feeble and He rewards the diligent – DO YOU KNOW HIM?
He is the Key to knowledge – He is the wellspring of wisdom – He is the doorway of deliverance – He is the Pathway of Peace – He is the Roadway of Righteousness – He is the Highway of Holiness – and He is the Gateway to Glory – DO YOU KNOW HIM?
His goodness is limitless – His grace is sufficient – His Yoke is easy – and His burden is light. I WISH I COULD REALLY DESCRIBE HIM!
He is indescribable – He is incomprehensible – He is invincible – He is irresistible – You can’t get Him off of your mind – And you can’t get him off of your hands – You can’t outlive Him – And you can’t live without Him – The Pharisees couldn’t stand Him – But they found out that they couldn’t stop Him – Pilate couldn’t find any fault in Him – and Herod couldn’t kill Him – Death couldn’t handle Him – And the grave couldn’t hold him.
THAT’S MY KING – DO YOU KNOW HIM?
I am striving to know Him better. I want to know Him more. I want to serve Him more. I’m a child of My King – I am an adopted Son of God, Born Again by the Blood of MY KING!
My King has promised me that evil will never prevail against His church, or His people.
In Matthew 16:18, Jesus said to Peter, "…upon this rock (meaning the Rock of Ages, the cross of Christ), I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
God spoke to Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, because he had prevailed with God after wrestling all the long night with God. He wouldn’t give up. It was a fight, it was a struggle that Jacob knew he had to fight. His only hope was in overcoming his own weakness and somehow convincing the Lord that he wanted to be set free from his life of deceitfulness and wanted a change. Jacob needed to be “reborn”, if you will, as a new man and this was his only chance, so he wouldn’t quit, he wouldn’t give up, until the Lord threw his hip out of joint to stop the wrestling match and granted Jacob what he wanted so badly.
Does that sound like the struggle that you and I have with serving the Lord? I believe that I can relate to Jacob’s battle. I fight with the flesh and I wrestle with the Word of the Lord. I try to overcome temptations and sometimes I fail. I’m not facing anything that many more have not faced before me. All of us are fighting this same battle.
But I hold on to the Lord with all my might, knowing that if I just hold on, I can’t lose because Jesus made a promise to me in 1 Corinthians 10:13 that, "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."
After that struggle, when Jacob’s name was changed to Israel, God began to deal with him in a greater measure than ever before, just like He has done for all of us who have come through the battle at an altar before God. We fought every devil in hell to get to Jesus. We struggled with “self” at the altar and laid our “self” before God in repentance, seeking His forgiveness. At that old-fashioned altar is the only place where you can meet Jesus, make that struggle, and have your name changed forever.
I have a new name written down in Glory today and my name is recorded in the Book of Life because of that long, hard struggle at the altar with God.
Have you been through that struggle with God? Has your name been changed and written down in Glory? Praise the Lord if it has, but if you are still living a life dedicated to sin, you can have that name changed this morning. Already the struggle has begun. Satan doesn’t want you to win, but Jesus is stronger than the devil and if you want to be saved, nothing can stop you but yourself.
Your altar can be this little bench here in front of the sanctuary, or it can be by you own bedside, or a tree stump in the woods, but somewhere, at some time, that struggle will have to take place, or you will never enter Heaven’s gates as a Son of God like all of us will.
DO YOU KNOW MY KING THIS MORNING? DO YOU WANT TO KNOW HIM?
God gave Jacob, now named Israel, some great promises. Those same promises are to all of those who go through the struggles of life and who will know Jesus as their King, and Savior.
If you have been born again, you will love what God has to say to you this morning.
Isaiah 41:8-9, "But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend. Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away."
God chose you, he called you by name, you went through the struggle and now your name is changed. Your name isn’t just Bill, or George, or Bob, but now you have new name. Your King Bill, King George, King Bob, and you are all son’s and daughters of God and priests unto your Lord forever. God looked down upon the sea of humanity and picked you out of the crowd. He picked you out of the miry clay, set your feet on the Rock, and made you His own. That’s why you serve Him today with love, because of what He has done for you!
That same King, who chose you, called you by name and lifted you out of that old life of sin has great things in store for you.
Isaiah 41:10, "Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness."
Don’t be afraid of the evil that seems to prevail, because it’s all an illusion, a deception of the devil. Evil will never prevail. My King has never lost a battle and when the dust clears, evil will be forever banished. Jesus has already overcome the world and we shall also overcome, through Him. Don’t allow the devil to lie to you and make you believe that your struggles are all for nothing. Don’t let him deceive you into believing that he is winning this battle between good and evil. He is already a defeated enemy, he just won’t quit fighting until he is forced to, and that day is coming soon.
Your King has you in His own Hand. Your Father in Heaven is holding you up, supporting you, bracing you against every storm that life can throw at you, and He will not fail you.
Isaiah 41:11-13, "Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish. Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended with thee: they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of naught. For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee."
So what if the world is fighting against you! So what if it seems that the whole world sometimes seems to be conspiring to bring you down! So what if your friends turn against you with the venom of a poisonous viper! So what if you family won’t even try to understand you! So what if your co-workers shun you! So what if your neighbors turn against you! God says that all of them will see the day come when their efforts to oppose you will be confounded and they will have to stand before YOUR KING and answer in shame for all that they have tried to do to stop you.
The Book of Revelation tells us that when we all get to Heaven, God is going to wipe away every tear, every heartache, every bad memory and you will remember all of the struggles and battles, all of the hate and turmoil, no more! You won’t find those enemies anymore. All of those who fought against you will be no more and the pain of those battles will be forever forgotten.
All of those who hated you because you wouldn’t bow down and serve the same idols that they served will be no more. All of those who refused to be your friend because you chose to serve the Lord, will be forever gone, bound up with the devil who they chose to serve. All those, even in the church, who may have once known God, but who became so lax in their service to God, and fell into the trap of loving the things of this world, and made fun of you for your true commitment and sanctified life, will no longer be there to tease you or laugh at you. They too, will have their place in hell’s flames with the devil that they served. They chose to reject your King, and now they are bound up with their king forever.
But God is your strength. He is your right arm and My King says, “Fear not; I will help you.” My, what a great promise!
Isaiah 41:14 says, "Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the LORD, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel."
It’s funny that God would use that term “worm” to describe his own called and chosen child, but that’s exactly how I feel sometimes, just like a worm.
A worm is always exposed to extreme danger. He is liable to be crushed under the foot of someone just walking along. He is despised and hated, being thought of as something despicable in the eyes of most men. He is weak, defenseless, vulnerable and in constant danger of being killed or eaten by some higher form of life on the food chain.
Do you ever feel like that worm? Can you sympathize with him? Life has a way of making you feel like a worm from time to time. But thank God, My King is there. He is my guard and protector. He has all power in Heaven and in Earth and He is watching my back.
Isaiah 58:8, "Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward."
My King is invincible, and for those of you who love to play computer games, He really is always in God Mode. I have nothing to fear for it is God who redeemed me and God who saved me, and it is God who will go with me all the way to victory.
Isaiah 41:15-16, "Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff. Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in the LORD, and shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel."
When the Children of Israel would thresh their corn, separating the grain from the chaff, they would throw it upon the ground and run back and forth over it with a wheeled cart that had teeth, or spikes, of iron that would shave the corn from the stalk and the husk.
That’s the way that God says His church will prevail in the end. You and I, and every member of the church of Jesus Christ, will be as iron teeth on a combine as we go through this world separating truth from the lies of the devil. The church may seem to some to be nothing more than a worm, weak and contemptible, but it is much more than that. God’s true church is a powerful force to be reckoned with and the devil knows it. We have the Word of God that is sharper than a two-edged sword, and we have the power of the Holy Ghost with us, and we have the blood of the Lamb upon us. And we are marching on to victory in spite all that Satan can do to stop us. Satan, this church is on the march and we will prevail through Our King.
Isaiah 41:17-20, "When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the LORD will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together: That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the LORD hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it."
We might be listed among the poor of this world, needing many things, doing without many of the finer things that life has to offer, and we certainly find ourselves going through some very dry places spiritually. We are hungry and thirsty for more of God.
But our King always has a fresh supply of grace, renewed pardon for sin, a great reserve of strength, and a greater faith. And we can always fight what we need, anytime we need it, by simply going back to our King in prayer and seeking His face.
Philippians 4:19, "But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus."
Isaiah 59:1, "Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:"
My King hears me when I call upon His name. He will supply your needs and mine. He will help you in time of need. He loves you and watches over you as the apple of His eye. He will never leave you nor forsake you.
The day will come when all the world, and every man that has ever walked the face of this earth, will be forced to bow down to MY KING. But I will already be living in Heaven with Him when that day comes because I chose to bow to Him now.
Do you know MY KING this morning? Have you met Him at the altar? Today Jesus Christ can become your King too.
