— Brother Phil Enlow: Think about the character. I believe some of Isaiah 40 was read the other night, if I’m not mistaken. But what a powerful portrayal of the greatness of this King and this throne and this Kingdom. It’s not just the fact that He’s all powerful and He can do anything He wants, but what’s the character of the one who sits there?
We’re called to submit to His authority, to give ourselves to Him, to surrender. But are we surrendering to a tyrant? Are we surrendering to somebody who has some selfish agenda and simply wants to make pets out of us? No! That’s the thing that God wants His people to know! That’s what makes rebellion against this thing so terrible! My God!
“…Comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for…” (NIV). Oh, praise God! “…That she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” Speaking of some of the judgments that had to come. “A voice of one calling: In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up….”
Do you feel low this morning? I’ll tell you, I don’t care how low any human being feels at any given time, there will be times when we will, but I’ll tell you, God’s gonna lift, God’s gonna lift up everyone. He’s not gonna leave anybody like that. Thank God!
“…Every mountain and hill made low….” Be careful you don’t get high and mighty in your mind. And “…rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
And then he talks about the, the shortness of life, the fragility of human life. It’s just like grass, it withers so quickly. The wind blows and it’s gone. This is the life into which we’re born. We tend to think this is all…we act like this is all there is, this is the thing that matters. It is so temporary!
( congregational amens ).
Oh God, lift our eyes! Open our eyes to see where we’re at. You know, this has been a funeral-filled weekend, hasn’t it? It’s just a fresh reminder of how short life is. But oh, the hope to which He’s called us! I’ll tell you, there’s a Lamb upon a throne right now.
And His heart toward His people is expressed in this passage…in verse 8, “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.” Then he talks about the good news, shout it out! Verse 10, “See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power, and he rules with a mighty arm. See, his reward is with him….”
And oh, when you think, in earthly terms we think of somebody to be afraid of. Oh my God, He’s gonna tell me what to do and gonna take away my liberty, and I’m not gonna be…no. What is this ruler like? “…He rules with His mighty arm. See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him. He tends his flock like a shepherd.”
Talk about Psalm 23 that we sung this morning. Oh, what a heart! Jesus called Himself the good shepherd, didn’t He? He knows His sheep. His sheep know Him. He gives them eternal life. No one can take them out of His hand. The Father who gave those sheep to Him is greater than the Son and nobody can take them out of His hand. Praise God! Do we so have something to be…to rejoice? I don’t care what happens in this world!
( congregational response ).
I mean, there’s all kinds of trouble that can happen. Think about what Paul, and others in the New Testament went through. They suffered, in so many ways, and yet they had such a sense, the people that served God in that time had such a sense of the one who sat on a throne, that He was in charge, that nothing could happen outside of His will, that Paul and Silas were able at midnight to sing psalms and praises to God in spite of having been beaten, and their feet locked in stocks, in a prison.
Oh God, do we see past the things that happen in this world? Do we see that there is One on a throne, who knows what we’re doing, who loves us. Praise God! Praise God! “He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.” What a…I mean for all the greatness and the magnificence of the power that He has, yet the character, the heart of the one who wields that power is somebody I want to serve.
( congregational response).
Praise God! He’s worthy to be served!
( congregational response ).
And then you have the scriptures that were read the other night about how great He is. “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?” I guess that would be this way [holding up hand], wouldn’t it? Whatever.
“Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighted the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance? Who can fathom the Spirit of the Lord, or instruct the Lord as his counselor? Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge, or showed him the path of understanding?” You’ve got a sovereign, eternal God that is over all, folks!
( congregational amens ).
And He wants every one of His people to get that in a deeper way today, starting with me. Praise God! I’ll tell you, you want some rest in a miserable, unrestful world? That’s where it comes from. It comes from never, ever forgetting that reality. Okay? “Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales.”
( blowing ).
It’s all gone. All the nations and all the things they’re doing right now. You know, China supposedly got a missile that can come over here and beat our defenses if they want to use it. Russia’s developing the same thing.
( moaning ).
Suppose they do? Suppose the world blows up right now. Praise God!
( laughing ).
( congregational amens ).
Who wants to live in this place anymore? But I’ll tell you, as long as we’re here, we serve One who is on the throne!
( congregational amens ).
There’s a Lamb who rules. And oh, He’s earned that place, hasn’t He? “…He weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.” And so forth. It goes on and describes, let’s see, verse 17. I don’t want to just read it all but, “Before Him all the nations are as nothing; they are regarded by him as worthless and less than nothing. With whom, then, will you compare God? To what image will you liken him?”
And then, of course, he goes into the idolatry and the ridiculousness of fashioning some thing, having a craftsman fashion an image and then say, there, you’re my god. But we do that in other ways. People do that today! They’re fashioning their bank accounts, and that becomes their god! And all you have to do is have the power go out, and somebody hack the computers and your wealth is gone! Folks, we need the Lord, don’t we? That’s not where my security is, that’s not my god.
“Do you not know?” Verse 21. “Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded? He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.”
You know, we think of a tent here as some little thing that we’re big enough to handle, sort of. If I do it, I don’t know. But anyway, it’s something that people…designed for people to be able to spread out and use in a useful way. But here He is spreading out the heavens. Whew! You gonna serve some earthly power? Forget it.
“He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away…To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.”
And so, he’s talking about the complaining of Jacob and Israel. Verse 28, “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary…” We sure do, don’t we? “…And his understanding no one can fathom.”
But how does he use this great power of his? It’s wonderful to think about how amazing his overall power is, but what does that mean for us? Just, do we just sit back and say, wow! We certainly can do that. But I’ll tell you, this is what He wants us to get from all of this power. How does He use this? It might be a lesson for how we use whatever power He gives us.
( congregational response ).
Yeah. He’s wanting to make us like Him, and we’re not by nature. I want to be more like Him, don’t you? “He gives strength to the weary…” Are you weary this morning? “…And increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
That’s what the throne, to which God calls us to bow, is about. It’s not just about earthly welfare either. It’s about a welfare of blessing, a dream…dream is not the word, a vision, a plan, that goes way beyond anything of this world. How many times have we pointed out, that Jesus said, this world, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”
And so, onto the scene came the One of whom the prophets prophesied and there he was, and John proclaimed him and said, behold, “…the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” Oh, I see the love and the mercy of God, who recognizes our condition, our need.
You know, we need to recognize it. He knows. He knows every secret of the heart, doesn’t He? Is there anything that is part of your life, or ever has been a part of your life, that He doesn’t know about? Is there any secret thought or motive that He doesn’t know completely about? Is that not a measure of the mercy and the love of God that He could know all that, and still love us?
( congregational response ).
And then this One that Isaiah saw on the throne, high and lifted up with a purity that is just beyond anything that you could ever find in this world. And yet, He was willing to humble himself, and become a man, and be subject, not only just to living here in this world, but to being despised, rejected, killed on a cross, and to do that for you, and for me. Does He deserve to be on a throne?
( congregational amens ).
Yeah! And the power that brought Him out of that, we’ve read so many times in Ephesians 1, if you want to read it again. That power is greater than every power that there could possibly be in this world. And He didn’t do that…obviously, He was already on a throne. He didn’t need to do that to obtain to a place of honor and of power! But what He obtained was a power that enables him to share God with us!
( congregational amens ).
To reach down to the lowest of the low, the ones who don’t deserve Him and know they don’t deserve Him! To reach down to the depths of your heart and to cleanse every detail of your past, to give you a hope, and a future. He reigns right now over everything that would ever oppose you and me.
Is there anything the devil can do to undermine, to undo this, to separate us? Can we be separated from the love of God? No! Romans 8—Romans 8 is so plain, isn’t it? Praise God! Nothing! If it comes…when it comes, to persecution, does any of that have the power to separate us? In our darkest hour, when we’re in the valley of the shadow of death, will He abandon us? Oh, praise God! I’ll tell you, this Lamb upon the throne, do you know one day we’re gonna stand around that throne, and worship Him, and bow before Him?
( congregational response ).
And our eyes…we’ll see, as Isaiah saw, His greatness and His power. And we’ll stand there and just be overwhelmed with His goodness and His mercy. But oh, how He wants to make that more real to us now, because I need the strength that comes from Him, don’t you?
( congregational response ).
I need that! Oh, how the devil would assault our mind and yet ,God in His wisdom has allowed us to experience all the things that we have to go through in this life because they actually help to shape us into what He wants us to be. I’d sure rather He just touch me and fill me and take me on to glory, that would be great…I’d be just as happy as a clam. If clams are happy, I guess.
( laughter ).
I don’t know that they have such emotions, but nonetheless, you know the expression. But does God know what He’s doing?
( congregational response ).
Does He know how to prepare His sons and His daughters for the inheritance that we have? I want to trust Him.
( congregational response ).
I don’t want to ever doubt His love for me. All I have to do is get my eyes off of me and my problems and all my shortcomings, which are plenty, and lift my eyes and see the cross, where He died. He died because of that. He didn’t die to say, all right, look what I did, now you measure up and I’ll accept you. I could never win His approval that way, neither could you. But He came to give me a hope and a future. Oh, is He worthy of being served?
( congregational amens ).
See, He didn’t just come as Savior, He came as King, and Lord. And He needs to have the reign. In fact if…you know, there are a whole lot of people that claim the benefits of citizenship in heaven without becoming citizens, without bowing down to the King. Folks, bow to Him from your heart.
( congregational amens ).
Put your hope and your trust in Him. It is a one-way ticket out of here that means laying down our lives and saying, Lord, my life does not belong to me anymore. I give you this life I cannot keep anyway. But I do it based upon the promise that You will cleanse me from all of my guilt so that one day when we all stand before Him, that’ll be a day of rejoicing!
( congregational response ).
Because the battle will be over! We’ll be clothed with all that He has given to us. We will be presented to all creation as His full-grown sons and daughters. Folks, there is a throne, and it’s real. And I’ll tell you, every man, woman, boy and child is…boy and girl, is called upon to bow before that throne when they hear the word and the message of God and what Christ has done to make it possible for your sins to be forgiven.
We sang a song…one of the hymns this morning, was inviting sinners to come home. Folks, if you’ve never bowed the knee, you’re a sinner. All you have to hope for is to stand before Him one day and give an account. And you’re not gonna like how that turns out.
But oh, there is a message of hope right now. That throne is what gives me hope this morning. It gives me confidence to stand there and put my faith in Him. It gives me confidence to trust Him with the circumstances of life, some of which I may not like. But I know He loves me! And I know He’s with me! And I know He will never leave me. He will never forsake me.
And I know that I am part of a process, it’s like being in a river. It flowed out of God’s heart through the mouths of His prophets and that river is carrying His people inexorably towards a destination that God predetermined before the world began. What a picture! And I just want to be in that river. I just want to trust Him and to live with hope this morning.
And when I feel my need, and it’s often, I want to know that I can go freely, because the price has been paid. I don’t have to earn my way here. I don’t have to be afraid that He won’t hold the scepter up, like Esther was. He sits there…that’s the reason He’s on the throne, is so that He can give us the help that we need! Anybody here need help today?
( congregational response ).
That’s why the throne is there! You have a right to go! You can go to the ‘untied,’ I mean the United Nations, they won’t help you any! I think the ‘untied nations’ is probably more like it. But there is a throne that goes beyond the highest human authority! And you and I serve the One who sits on that throne.
Folks, when Jesus died, He absolutely defeated the devil. It was finished, and the devil knew it! You know, many times when a monarch went out to fight another king, and of course, the people heard about the battle and worried, how is this gonna turn out?
But if they, if your king won the war, what often happened was he would bring the other king and his generals and some of his important people as captives! And there would be a victory parade and all of them would be stripped down and put in chains and marched down the street, before the people, and said, there is your enemy. Do you know Jesus has done that? Read Colossians chapter 2. It’s not just that He’s forgiven my sins but He’s defeated my enemy!
( congregational amens ).
Why are we afraid of Him? Why are we afraid of our own weaknesses? Why are we afraid of anything? But Jesus has paid it all!
( congregational amens ).
He reigns on the throne! And one day we will see Him as Isaiah did. But we’ll be standing there together with the redeemed of all ages, including Isaiah, including Jeremiah and Elijah and Moses, and David, and all these…and so many others, Paul and Peter. We’ll stand there right by their side and say, glory to the Lamb, the Lamb upon the throne. I’m here because of what He did! And I gladly, joyfully serve Him! Let’s joyfully serve Him here!
( congregational response ).
Let’s lay hold of the hope that He has given to us. Let’s never let that leave our consciousness. But just say, Lord, I’m yours, lead me, help me, change me, do whatever You need to do. Just get me ready for that day. That’s what it’s about. And He will…He has begun that good work.
He, “…will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” (KJV).
We’re serving One who has the power to say we’re already glorified! Wow! I’m just gonna cooperate with the process and rejoice in Him and worship Him! He is worthy! Is the Lamb on the throne?
( congregational response).
Is He on the throne of your heart and your life? To Him be the glory! Praise God!
