He Is "King of Kings, Lord of Lords", Part 1

Today, on Insight for Living, from Chuck Swindoll. You know the fight is going on, and you can't release it to the living God, and yet you know you can't hold onto it yourself, and you're in this state in between. And God is going to get your attention and get the controls. And you will someday recognize He is King of Kings, He is Lord of Lords.

And none other. Some view Jesus Christ as the quintessential model for morality. He's the ultimate standard for good behavior. And while those observations are true, they fall short of His true status. Today, on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll continues his teaching series called, His Name is Wonderful. It's a study on the names that are ascribed to God. In this next study, we'll examine one of the biblical names that elevates God to His sovereign, even majestic, role.

Chuck titled today's message, He is King of Kings, Lord of Lords. Had we been living in the days that Jesus was born and grew up, I'm confident we would not have seen Him as the King and the Lord. As a matter of fact, His birth would would have been rather rather obscure and extremely humble. We would never have selected Him to have been the one chosen to be the Messiah. Had we seen Him standing with the children's choir and singing with them, I'm sure we would not have picked Him out and said that that boy third from the left in the second row, that's the young Messiah. Had we watched Him when He became a man in a carpenter's shop, I am I'm sure we would have never selected Him to have been the one who would redeem our nation. And had we seen Him when He became a man and even stepped into ministry, I doubt that anyone here or anywhere in time would have put their hand on His shoulder and said, You're obviously the one.

A British minister realizing the significance of all this contrast decided to put his thoughts in a paragraph that has outlived his own name. He wrote, Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another obscure village. He worked in a carpenter's shop until he was thirty and then for three years he was an itinerant preacher. Never wrote a book, never owned a home, never went to college, never had a family, never traveled two hundred miles from the place where he was born.

He never did one of the things that usually accompanies greatness. While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied him, another betrayed him. He went through the mockery of a trial and was nailed to a cross between two thieves. His executioners gambled for the only piece of property he had on earth while he was dying, and that was his cloak.

When he was dead, he was taken down and placed in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Nineteen wide centuries have come and gone and today he is the centerpiece of the human race. He is the leader in the column of progress. I'm far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched and all the navies that ever were built and all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned put together have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life.

That's true. What a contrast. This simple obscure man was indeed King of Kings and Lord of Lords. In our study of the wonderful names of Jesus we have come to perhaps one of the greatest, if not the greatest. We have seen earlier that he is indeed the Lord and we suggested to you that there were some simple things to remember when we call him Lord.

In fact as I remember we gave them to you in A, B, C, D fashion. A, when we call him Lord we affirm our allegiance. B, when we declare he is Lord we bow to his rightful authority over us. He's not just one among many Lords, he is the Lord and we bow to his authority. C, when we call him Lord we commit all we are and have and hope to be. We commit to him.

And D, when we call him Lord we dethrone our own will and way. We give him, as it has often been said, the throne room of our lives. We turn over the reigns.

We give him the steering wheel. We tell him that we're under his authority and therefore we want to live under his direction and under his control. Scripture intensifies the whole idea of Lord by calling him on a few rare occasions not simply Lord but King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Now when a Britisher writes that more than any of the kings that ever reigned he is the highest reigning one.

That's saying something. We who are not regal-minded, we who do not have a king cannot appreciate the authority of a king. In fact we rebelled against it when we formed our nation. But in God's plan there is a monarchy, not a democracy. God's arrangement of things is that there be a king and this king be a king over all and this Lord be a Lord above all. No one has the right that he possesses over us.

No one but he. Several times in Scripture we find this reference to his being king and Lord. To begin with I see it in Deuteronomy chapter 10.

If you'll trace with me briefly. First of all in the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 10. Let me read for you verses 12 through 17.

Let's see where this name occurs. Deuteronomy 10 12. And now Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, love him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. And to keep the Lord's commandments. Look at the references to the Lord. Fear the Lord, love him, serve the Lord, keep the Lord's commandments, and keep his statutes which I am commanding you today for your good. Behold to the Lord your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth, and all that is in it. Yet on your fathers, he writes the Israelites, on your fathers did the Lord set his affection to love them. He chose their descendants after them even you above all peoples as it is this day.

Circumcised in your heart and stiffen your neck no more for notice now this is the earliest reference to those words. For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords. He's king of kings, he's Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe.

He executes justice for the orphan and the widow and shows his love for the alien by giving him food and clothing and then Moses goes on to exhort the people of Israel to be like their God and to show mercy to the aliens and compassion to those who need him. But notice the reference in verse 17 the Lord is your God above all gods little g and he is your Lord above all lords little l. He's king of kings, he's Lord of lords. Again in Psalm 136 very interesting psalm because it has a repetitive phrase throughout the psalm no doubt to be stated antiphonally from choir to people or from one side of the congregation to the other. Psalm 136 is filled with the phrase his loving kindness is everlasting. A statement is given and then his loving kindness is everlasting. Another statement, his loving kindness is everlasting.

Let me read the first four verses. 136, give thanks to the Lord for he is good his loving kindness is everlasting. Give thanks to the God of gods, note the reference, God of gods his loving kindness is everlasting. Give thanks to the Lord of lords his loving kindness is everlasting. To him alone, to him who alone does great wonders, his loving kindness is everlasting. To him who made the heavens with skill, his loving kindness is everlasting." It goes all the way through these 26 verses.

Similar words, but now given in poetic manner. Verse 2, he's the God of gods. Verse 3, he's the Lord of lords.

When you're making your plans to determine who to worship, choose the one who is above all other gods, and when you're determining your direction as to who will take charge of your life, choose the one who is Lord above all who are lords, the head monarch, the top God, the God above all gods. Another in the Old Testament is in Daniel chapter 4. By the way, these are references not to Christ, but to the living God himself.

He transfers this name to the Savior when we get to the New Testament. Daniel 4, this is a great chapter and it's given in the first person often. It seems as though it is Nebuchadnezzar's testimony. I wondered in my study if at this point in the writing of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar the king asked for the stylus and said to the prophet, let me write this section of the book.

Let me make this entry into your journal. Notice how it begins, Nebuchadnezzar the king to all the peoples, it's like he's writing it himself, to all the people's nations and men of every language that live in all the earth, may your peace abound. It has seemed good to me to declare the signs and wonders which the Most High God has done for me. This is not some Israelite king, this is a Babylonian king.

That's what makes it unusual. And yet Nebuchadnezzar the Babylonian king is saying that Jehovah God is the the Most High God, not his gods in Babylon, but the God of the Israelites. How great are his signs, how mighty are his wonders. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. His dominion is from generation to generation. I, Nebuchadnezzar, see the personal reference, it's as though he's giving a testimony.

I the king was at ease in my house and flourishing in my palace. Now, Nebuchadnezzar is going back to earlier days in his life before the God of heaven was the God of his life. He says, I was at ease in my house, I was flourishing in my palace, I saw a dream and it made me fearful.

And these fantasies as I lay on my bed and the visions in my mind kept alarming me. You who know the story know that he saw a very unusual scene and only Daniel the prophet could give the interpretation of it. Nebuchadnezzar says that in the balance of the chapter.

Let's notice Daniel's words toward the end of the chapter. Verse 24. This is the interpretation, O king, and this is the decree of the Most High, which has come upon my Lord the King, that you be driven away from mankind and your dwelling place be with the beasts of the field. And you be given grass to eat like cattle and be drenched with the dew of heaven and seven periods of time will pass over you.

How long? You may want to mark it until you recognize that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whomever he wishes. By the way, I think there are some people who in order to face the fact that Jesus Christ as King of Kings and Lord of Lords must go through a period like this. Maybe not as severe, but a period of time when God must break you. He shakes you. He cuts your feet out from under you. He levels you. He puts you in a position of weakness and dependency.

He takes away your reputation. He even maybe for a period of time virtually takes away your mind and you were left in this state of waiting until you recognize that the Most High is indeed the God of your life. Nebuchadnezzar had to go through such a time and he remained in that condition for as long as it took until the recognition of past that he is indeed King of Kings and and Lord of Lords. You wonder how bad it got for Nebuchadnezzar?

Look at verse 28. All this happened to Nebuchadnezzar the king. Twelve months later, he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon. The king reflected and said, is this not Babylon the great which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty? While the word was in the king's mouth a voice came from heaven saying King Nebuchadnezzar to you it is declared sovereignty has been removed from you and you will be driven away from mankind and your dwelling place will be with the beasts of the field. You will be given grass to eat like cattle and seven periods of time will pass over you until you recognize, here it is again, that he's King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Until you recognize that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whomever he wishes. I think the most significant part of what follows is the first word of verse 33. Immediately.

Immediately. The word concerning Nebuchadnezzar began what was fulfilled and he was driven away from mankind and he began eating grass like cattle his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair had grown like eagles feathers and his nails, his fingernails like birds' claws. He went mad. He roamed the field like a wild animal. He lived outside for this period of sevens, however long it was. He lived away from humanity in this terrible isolated state. You know who comes to my mind?

Chuck Colson comes to my mind. The man who was the assistant to the president, the personal counsel of Richard Nixon, the one who had access to the Oval Office, the one who had built his own kingdom and reared it high in the poet's words, till its towers had pierced the blue of the sky. And then God leveled him.

Watergate came in a prison sentence and the humiliation of living as a felon in the eyes of the public, the loss of reputation, the embarrassment of family and he lived like that in a prison in the deep south for months. It could have been years until he recognized that the Most High rules over the kingdom of men. He came to his senses. He was born again and he wonderfully released the controls of his life.

What a change, just a hundred and eighty degree change in his life. Some of you are on the early part of this story. You haven't yet broken. Some of you are in the transition of it. You're in a maddening state of mind. You know the fight is going on and you can't release it to the living God and yet you know you can't hold on to it yourself and you're in this state in between. Like Nebuchadnezzar, perhaps not as dramatically but mentally you find yourself in that state of confusion and God is going to get your attention and get the controls and you will someday recognize he is King of Kings, he is Lord of Lords and none other, certainly not myself.

And when you do, peace will return. In fact Nebuchadnezzar verse 34 writes, at the end of that period, he's got the pen back in his hand, I Nebuchadnezzar raised my eyes toward heaven, must have been a wonderful moment, and my reason returned to me and I blessed the Most High and I praised and honored him who lives forever. He adds, all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing and he, not I, he does according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or say unto him, what are you doing?

What are you up to? How dare you take charge? None can say that to him, certainly not I. Nebuchadnezzar has bowed his knee to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Over at 1 Timothy chapter 6, 1 Timothy 6, the final scene is one of the most descriptive and magnificent description of the Lord Jesus, of the living God, as he's pictured as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Look at 1 Timothy 6 verse 13, I charge you in the presence of God who gives life to all things and of Christ Jesus who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ which he will bring about at the proper time. Now look at this description, he who is the blessed and only sovereign. The King James Bible says the blessed and only potentate. It's the only time it's found in scripture, potentate.

The blessed and only sovereign the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who alone possesses immortality. This is Insight for Living and we're midway through a message from Chuck Swindoll that's titled He is King of Kings, Lord of Lords. If you'd like to learn more about this ministry visit us online at insightworld.org We'll hear the final portion of Chuck's study on the next edition of Insight for Living but did you know you can also hear each broadcast by visiting our website? Just look for this teaching series called His Name is Wonderful at insight.org. Also did you know that Insight for Living supplies a thorough set of study notes for each sermon that Chuck presents? This online document is called Searching the Scriptures and it can be printed out or emailed to your friends.

To access the free Searching the Scriptures study notes go to insightworld.org slash studies. As a nonprofit ministry Chuck's teaching is made possible through voluntary donations from people like you. In a real sense you're the one who's making it possible to reach people like this woman in North Carolina who shared her story. She said, Chuck I grew up in a church that was very legalistic. I never felt I was good enough to even be there so for 20-plus years I refused to go to church.

One day I was searching for something to listen to on the radio and this man with a southern accent was on. Well it was you and Insight for Living has been a companion ever since. Thank you for bringing God's awesome word to us each day. I will be in heaven when I die because of this ministry. While such an encouraging note you know when you give to Insight for Living you are playing a significant role in reaching listeners like this one. You can join this effort today by giving a gift when you call us.

If you're listening in the United States call 800-772-8888 or you can give online at insight.org slash donate. In March 2023, Insight for Living Ministries is hosting an unforgettable journey to Israel. Carefully plan to deepen your understanding of the Bible and draw you closer to God.

Here's Chuck Swindoll. For thousands of years no place has been more meaningful to God's children than the land of Israel. The rugged landscape reminds us to find refuge in God alone.

The fertile valleys invite us to follow our shepherd. Jerusalem's position at the very center of the world announces the good news of Christ to every nation. And now you can see Israel with Chuck Swindoll and Insight for Living Ministries March 5th through the 16th, 2023. Every time I visited the Holy Land I've returned home with a refreshed heart for God and a renewed vision for the world.

Really I mean it every time. And so I want you to have the same life-changing experience. To learn more go to Insight.org slash events or call this number 1-888-447-0444. Insight for Living Ministries tour to Israel is paid for and made possible by only those who choose to attend. I'm Bill Meyer inviting you to join us when Chuck Swindoll continues his special Christmas series on the names of God. That's Tuesday on Insight for Living. The preceding message he is King of Kings Lord of Lords was copyrighted in 1987 1992 and 1998 and the sound recording was copyrighted in 1998 by Charles R Swindoll Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.