The Baptist Bible Hour now comes to you under the direction of Elder LeSaire Bradley Jr. O for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer's praise! Thou the resolve by God and King, thou triumphs of his grace!
This is LeSaire Bradley Jr. inviting you to stay tuned for another message of God's sovereign grace. A mighty fortress is our God, O Lord, never failing! Our helper, be all, make up of all mortal ills prevailing! For still our ancient foe, does seek to work us all! His craft and power are great, and armed with cruel hate, on earth is God his equal!
If we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing! Word of the right man on our side, moment of God's own choosing! Thus has truth that may be, Christ Jesus it is he!
The Lord of hosts is they, from age to age the same, and we must win the battle! His word above all earth we found, no thanks to them alighted! The Spirit and the gifts are ours, through him grew with us alighted!
Bad goods and thin dread go, this mortal life also, the body they may kill! God's truth alight has still, his kingdom is forever! Amen! The other day I was reading through the mail letters that our listeners have sent in, expressing their appreciation for the truths that we brought in our messages, and I saw so many familiar names, people that have written to us through the years, and I want to say to each of you I appreciate your support, your prayers, your faithfulness, and ask that you continue to pray for us, that we can meet the needs to keep up this work of sending out the good news of salvation by grace through Jesus Christ. Our address is Baptist Bible Hour, Box 17037, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. You can also make a donation by going to our website at BaptistBibleHour.org. There you can read the Baptist Witness, make a donation, hear both the Sunday and daily broadcast.
We look forward to hearing from you. The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell. It goes beyond the highest star and reaches to the lowest hell.
The guilty pair bow down with care. God gave His Son to win. His erring child He reconciled and pardoned from his sin. O love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong, it shall forevermore endure the saints' and angels' song. Could we with ink the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made? Were every stock on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by train? To ride the love of God above would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the hope, though stretched from sky to sky. O love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong, it shall forevermore endure the saints' and angels' song. O love of God, how rich and pure, O tell the love of God. We bring you now a portion of a message entitled, The Lord is in His Holy Temple. The Lord is in His Holy Temple.
Let's look at Psalm 11. Psalm 11 in the fourth verse, as many other scriptures coincide and confirm with this thought, says, The Lord is in His Holy Temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven.
His eyes behold, His eyelids try the children of men. Where is our God? He lives, He rules, He reigns. He is on the throne.
He is in His Holy Temple. And as He is there, His eyes see all things. God is omniscient, He knows all things. He reads every mind and every heart. He knows what we're about. He knows our past, our present.
He knows all about us. His eyes behold and His eyelids try the children of men. We are accountable to God, and He's the final judge. So the God that we worship is in His Holy Temple. Now that's reassuring when we understand that this indicates that God then, being in His Holy Temple, is in charge.
God has all authority and power. In Daniel chapter 4, verse 25, we read these words that were delivered to Nebuchadnezzar when he was going to be brought down, humbled and made to realize something about the true God. Daniel chapter 4, verse 25 says that they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beast of the field, and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over, get this, till thou know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever He will.
This king felt like he was in absolute control. He was on the throne, it was his kingdom, he says, I've gotten it by my might for my glory. But the word comes, you're going to be humbled, you're going to be brought down to eat grass like the oxen, till you know that the Most High ruleth. We learn then from this statement in our text, the Lord is in His Holy Temple, He rules, He reigns. Verse 26, and whereas they commanded thee to leave the stump of the tree roots, thy kingdom shall be sure unto thee after that thou shalt have known that the heavens do rule. Now obviously taken in its context, when it's talking about the heavens ruling, it's not talking about what the astrologers would mean by that, but it's talking about the Lord who is in His Holy Temple.
The heavens do rule because God rules, God is in the heavens, He's in His Holy Temple and He is the one who rules. He is sovereign, God is sovereign in all of His works. God was sovereign in His dealing with Judah. God says I'm going to raise up the Babylonians, I'm in the process of it now, I've prospered their way, I've made them successful.
They were insignificant people, but God prospered them, raised them up explicitly to come in and invade Judah. God was sovereign in that, God had a right to do that. And furthermore God was sovereign, not only as He would deal with Judah, but in His dealing with the Babylonians. And He says after they have accomplished My purpose there, I'm sending judgment on them.
And the five woes were pronounced as to what they would encounter and endure as a result of their pride, their greed, their great sin, God's sovereign. God is sovereign not only in blessing, God is sovereign not only in saving, God is sovereign in the sending of judgment. He has the right to do what He pleases and whatever He does is in harmony with His holiness, in the perfection of His character.
We may not be able to understand all that He's doing, certainly the prophet didn't understand it all here, but he had to reach the point to say the Lord is in His holy temple, let all the earth keep silence before Him. Now although questions may be raised in your own mind about certain things that God is doing, or certain things that God is suffering to transpire and you can't figure out the why and wherefore of it, are you not glad to know that God is ruling and that the events of time are not left to chance or fate? It's strange that when you start talking about God's sovereignty, some will immediately respond by saying, well that's fatalism.
It's the exact opposite. With God on the throne, it's not fatalism. It's a holy God working His will to the glory of His name and for the good of His people. But when you say things are just happening, just one of those things, whoever knows what's going to happen next, just see what's going to develop, what's fate going to bring, what's chance going to allow to occur in your life. No, we're not talking about chance, we're not talking about fatalism, we're talking about God. I'd like to know that God is the one who has control, who has all authority, all power is working His will.
Things may seem to be out of culture to you today. Your life at this moment may seem to be somewhat chaotic, but God's still on the throne. The Lord is in His holy temple.
This is one of these texts you could well put on your refrigerator as a reminder as you go about your duties from day to day and there are those times when you feel like you're falling apart and maybe everything connected with your life is falling apart and you're reminded, the Lord is in His holy temple. There's one who is not moved, there's one who has not chains, there's one who's ruling, He's the sovereign of heaven and earth. Isaiah chapter 40 reveals to us that God not only is sovereign in His dealings with Judah and His dealings with the Babylonians who are very much under His control, but with all of the nations of the earth. Verse 13 of Isaiah chapter 40, Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being His counselor hath taught Him? With whom took He counsel, and who instructed Him, and taught Him in the path of judgment, and taught Him knowledge, and showed to Him the way of understanding?
There are people who try that. They're going to try to instruct God and say, This is the way I think God ordered my new business. Or, I'm going to try to work at studying the Bible until I can get things in some sequence that I can be satisfied in my own mind. This must be what God meant. This isn't exactly what He said, but I'm sure that He must have meant this, because this is what appears to be right to me. Who's going to instruct the Lord?
Who's going to give Him understanding? Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance. When you think about all the pomp, and show, and ceremony, and display, and claim to greatness that goes on among the nations of the earth today, and God says all of it put together is less than the drop of a bucket. Kind of puts things in perspective, doesn't it? Some of the things that we began to think are so terribly important, and that others around us are constantly touting as being tremendously important.
God says put the whole show together, and less than the drop of a bucket, and counted as the small dust of a balance. Behold, it taketh up the isles as a very little thing, and Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering. All nations before Him are as nothing. What's that do to man's pride?
All the nations before Him. All of their great accomplishments. All of the things in which they glory. All of them are as nothing, and they are counted as less than nothing and vanity.
Vanity. Verse 25 then he says, To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal, saith the Holy One? Seeing the greatness of God. Seeing His sovereignty and His majesty.
How then are you going to carve out an image, and make an idol, and say this is our God, or that this even represents our God? Our God is in the heavens. How wonderful to know that He's there. And something that's tremendously comforting and encouraging is to know that we have access to this holy temple. You have access by the new and living way.
Jesus Christ is the only mediator between God and man. How could it be that we as weak fallen creatures, we who often are keenly aware of our own failures and shortcomings, how could we possibly have access to His holy temple? Well, the book of Jonah reveals to us that that access can be gained even under the most adverse conditions. Jonah chapter 2 verse 4, Then said I, I am cast out of thy sight, yet will I look again toward thy holy temple.
At this point, Jonah has been thrown overboard and swallowed by great fish. As far as knowing north from south and knowing where the temple was at Jerusalem, I don't think he had his bearings straight. He wasn't talking about that temple. He was talking about the temple above. I'm going to look toward thy holy temple.
You know, I've heard people discuss the issue of whether or not a person ought to pray while they're kneeling, or pray while they're standing up, or what position is necessary. I don't know that Jonah was in much of a position to rearrange himself and get in any particular posture here, but he certainly was in deep trouble. And from the depths of his heart, he prayed, he said, I'm going to look again toward thy holy temple. It felt like he was down for the count, but there wasn't but one place to look, only one source of help, only one who could possibly deliver him, and that was the Lord who was in his holy temple. Here's a man that's been trying to run from God, and of course that's an impossibility.
So the Lord caught him. He's in a great storm. Here he is in the belly of a great fish, which God had also prepared, and he cries.
I'd say, well, that's not a very good place to pray. I tell you, when you're in deep trouble, it doesn't matter quite where you are, whether you're in the storm, on the ship, in the sea, or in the fish. If your trouble is great enough, you're going to pray, and Jonah prays. And his prayer went all the way from the belly of the fish, went all the way from the sea itself, all the way to heaven and into the very temple of God where the Lord dwells. Now that's encouraging, isn't it? You ever have those days where you feel like I might as well be in the depths of the sea, the storm might as well be raging the way things are falling apart for me?
And it might have been a time or two you felt like you were in the whale's belly. But no matter how deep you may plunge amidst the struggles and conflicts of life, there is hope. Hope given in Jonah's case to know that the Lord in his holy temple is ready to hear his people when they call on him. Let's look at the 18th Psalm.
Psalm 18 verse 6. In my distress I called upon the Lord and cried unto my God. He heard me out of his temple, and my cry came before him even into his ears. I was in distress. I needed help. I was troubled.
So what did I do? I called upon the Lord. How sad that people many times wait until the trouble is just overwhelming before they ever call. We ought to call on the Lord daily. We ought to call on the Lord constantly. We ought to be continually seeking him. But when we do face trouble, when we're sinking in the mire where there is no standing, when we're struggling in the darkness of the night, when we feel to be like the owl in the desert, when we're like the spire alone on the housetop, Lord I need help.
I need it now. I need that help that only thou canst provide. In my distress I called unto the Lord. And the reassuring lesson that we get from it is that he heard my voice out of his holy temple, out of his temple. God heard me when I cried in my distress. Hope.
Hope is given for those in distress. Am I talking to anybody today who's experiencing any stress? Do you have physical problems you're struggling with? Do you have troubles at work, financial troubles? Are there family problems?
Are there concerns about some of your friends, relatives? Do you struggle with your needs spiritually? You get to the place sometime where you say, I just can't seem to measure up. I know the things I ought to be doing. I hear these messages that inspire me. I'm determined with the grace of God that during the days ahead I'm going to walk more closely with the Lord. It seems like I don't get there.
And Satan can use that as a real source of discouragement. Where you feel like, what's the use? Might as well just throw up my hands and quit.
I just don't even know what it's all about. I cannot get where I need to be. Distress can come in many forms. But the good news is that when the psalmist in his distress called upon the Lord, the Lord heard him. Oh, how we need to remember that. And there are moments when we would say, I just can't go on much longer.
The burden is too great. And though it may seem to us that the Lord is far away, and when we think about him in his holy temple in heaven itself, that seems like a terrible distance. But when we call all the way from our cry here on the earth through the portals of glory to his very throne, he said, I will hear you. Call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. So we see here in our text a contrast.
We see a declaration. That means you're not going to reject his word. You're not going to reject biblical counsel. You're not going to reject the authority that God has put in place in the home, in the church, in the nation.
Being submissive to him means that we not only acknowledge the truth of his word as it is preached, but we do what is commanded. You remember the lesson that Jesus gave about a man that had two sons and he said, go work in my vineyard, and one was very polite and courteous and said, I'd go sir, but he never got there. The other was impudent, refused to go, but later he repented and went. Which of the new sons did the Father's will?
Obviously, it was the one that got to the field, that went to the place the Father had directed him to go. You could sit in church all your life and acknowledge that what is preached from the pulpit is true, but if you do not apply it, if you do not live it out, it's empty, vain, meaningless. Have you said at various times, I go sir, but you've never gone?
There may have been a time in your life that you said, rebelliously, I will not go. May this be the day of repentance when you go to the field. This submission is when we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. If we are self-willed, independent, rebellious, determined to go our own way, do our own thing, we are not silent before him. First Peter chapter 5 verse 6 says, humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time.
This is the appropriate response. We see the contrast between the true God and the idols. We see a declaration, a declaration of God's sovereignty. The Lord is in his holy temple, he's ruling, he's reigning. We see the appropriate response that all the earth keeps silence before him.
How is it with you today? This view of God in his sovereign majesty, this view of our sovereign creator in his holy temple, ruling and reigning, will make a tremendous difference in your life. In the days when the storms of life are raging, it will give you a calmness of soul to know the Lord is in his holy temple. No matter how great the distress, no matter how deep the troubles and problems are at the moment, the Lord is in his holy temple. You say, I fear what's going on, all of the violence, the terrorism in the world today, I don't know what the future holds, the Lord is in his holy temple.
Yes, there are wicked men, there are evil forces at work, none of us can know what the future holds, none of us can know what we may encounter in our lifetime, but God is in charge. The Lord is in his holy temple. Have you seen yourself as a needy sinner before the throne of this sovereign God? Have you seen the Lord high and lifted up and understand that he is a God of holiness demanding perfection and you have come short? You have sinned, you see yourself as a sinner. Have you been made to realize that the only possibility of one who is condemned as a result of their sinfulness to stand acceptable in the sight of God is through the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ only because of what the Savior has accomplished at Calvary's cross? Can there be hope for such a sinner as we know ourselves to be? Have you been brought to the place that you rest your case in him? May we say with the hymn writer in all of our view of how we apply this text in our life, Wait, O my soul, thy Maker's will, tumultuous passions all be still, nor let a murmuring thought arise, his ways are just his counsel's wise. God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform.
He plants his first steps in the sea, he rides upon the storm. Things can indeed be better today in our life when we come to recognize the greatness of God, his absolute sovereignty, that he is on the throne, that he rules and reigns according to his purpose, and that he is vitally interested in the welfare of his people and works things together for their good. I hope that you will write us, and until next week at this same time, may the Lord richly bless you all. The Baptist Bible Hour has come to you under the direction of Elder LeSaire Bradley, Jr. Address all mail to The Baptist Bible Hour, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. That's The Baptist Bible Hour, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. Just not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning proper face, behind a smiling face.
