The King is Coming

We're going to be in Psalm 96 verses 11 to 13 tonight. If you could take a turn with me to Psalm 96 verses 11 to 13. The Psalmist is giving us several reasons in the book of Psalms. And in these verses, he's going to give us one reason why he thinks that we should declare the glory of the Lord of hosts. He's giving us one reason why he has a deep desire to declare the glory of Yahweh.

In verses 11 to 13, we read that the King is coming. Let me pray. Father, thank you for your Word, your eternal, inner and infallible Word that is able to cut through into our souls. So we pray that you would speak to us tonight.

Call us out from our comfort zones. Help us to have the spiritual sight to see the field white unto harvest. Challenge us, encourage us, embolden us, transform us even tonight. We pray all this in the mighty name of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Amen. Let's read Psalm 96 verses 11 to 13. Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar and all that fills it.

Let the field exalt and everything in it. Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord. For he comes, for he comes to judge the earth.

For he will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness. First of all, all of the creation, all of creation is called to worship the King. The heavens, the earth, the fields, all that is in it, the seas, everything is called to worship the King. They are called to make this joyful noise and sing with exuberance. And this is not a picture of a calm and slow and quiet, low energy praise, but this is an enthusiastic, joyful outburst of praise and proclamation.

But why? Why does the Psalmist say that we should do that? Look at verses 12 and 13. Let the field exalt and everything in it. Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy.

Why? For he comes. We should sing for joy before the Lord, for he comes. And why is he coming? He is coming to judge the earth.

And what will he do when he comes? He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness. Now see this King is the righteous judge who will not allow any injustice, oppression, wickedness to prevail in the land when he comes to rule, his absolute rule. He will never allow sins to go unpunished. He is the faithful God who will never abandon his promises that he made to his people. He is the faithful God who will never leave his people, defend themselves against their enemies.

He is the King who will establish justice, righteousness, peace, and order. Now, when we see and hear about the war that is going on in Ukraine and read about all the atrocities and the crimes that has been done, committed in the name of war, thousands of people, thousands of families displaced and separated from each other. Don't we desire peace and justice?

Don't we hear and read and see visuals about that earthquake that killed close to 50,000 people? Don't we cry out for restoration and peace? Now see, this is the world that we live in. Romans 8 22 reads this way, For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. The whole of creation is in such turmoil and we see that all around us. But when we get to Psalm 96, the psalmist is telling everything created to sing for joy. The skies, the oceans, the fields are to sing for joy and to sing that with much enthusiasm.

The seas roar. Let them all talk about this King who is coming. But why is there such joy? Because the King is coming. Because when this King comes, he will correct all the wrongs. He will bring order to the chaos created by the fall. He will punish all the wicked and remove them from the face of the earth.

If we are that wicked, if we are not saved by the grace of Jesus Christ, he will have to remove us from the face of the earth. He will remove all the wicked. He will establish the righteous firmly in the land and he will rule with absolute justice. He will restore the brokenness of the world and he will bring peace on the land. Our Lord Jesus Christ is called the Prince of Peace and he brings that absolute peace when he comes to rule. Isn't this what every human beings crave for?

We crave for peace, we crave for restoration, we crave for justice, for righteousness, for life to be as it is ought to be from the day it was created. When this King comes, he is going to bring that. But how is he going to do this?

How will he restore? Through the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the King of Kings. He is the Lord of Lords. Let me read from Colossians chapter 1 verses 19 and 20. This is Colossians chapter 1 verses 19 and 20. For in him, this is Jesus Christ, in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him, again this is Jesus Christ, and through him to reconcile to himself all things whether on earth or in heaven making peace.

How? By the blood of his cross. This is why preaching the gospel should be a joyful thing. We expect, we desire peace, we desire restoration, we desire the brokenness of the world to just go away and restoration come that only comes through our Lord Jesus Christ. That should excite us. We are looking forward to that. We need that.

How can we get to it? Oh, look at Christ and look at what he will do when he comes because he died on the cross for our sins and for the reconciliation of everything in heaven and on earth to himself through the cross of Jesus Christ. There is no peace apart from the King Jesus. There is no restoration without the gospel. There is no salvation without the cross of Christ.

We have no hope for the world apart from the Lord Jesus Christ and his cross. This is the gospel. It is true that the gospel saves individuals like you and me. He washes our sin. He dies for the penalty for our sins.

That is true. Oh, but the gospel goes way beyond that. It is through the cross that he will reconcile all things to himself. It is Jesus Christ. It is Jesus Christ when he comes as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, when he will establish the peace, the righteousness, the justice that we all look forward to and crave for.

So what are we to do? Are we to just sit back and wait till the King comes? Hey, I'm saved. I'm going to heaven.

I know that. I'm just going to wait till the King comes. I don't care about the others. I mean, I just wait.

Absolutely not. What does the Psalmist say? We are to declare the glory of the Lord. Psalm 96 verse 3. We are to tell of his salvation. Psalm 92 verse 2. And we are to proclaim his coming.

Verse 13. The Psalmist, having seen and reflected on the glory and salvation of Yahweh, now has come to a fresh realization and a heightened expectation that this glorious King of Kings is coming to judge the world. That moves him to call the whole creation to worship this King.

He is proclaiming to all that the King is coming to judge. There are many who are sitting here in this sanctuary who's been saved by grace through faith. You have seen the glory and the salvation of the Lord of hosts in the face of Jesus Christ.

Haven't you? Does it move you to sing a new song to the Lord? Moved by that worship?

Would you have a renewed passion, enthusiasm, a joyful desire to tell the world of this King who is coming soon to judge and rule the world? Look at 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 9. This is 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 9.

A familiar passage verse 9. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession. He's talking about the church. He's talking about you and me. Why did he choose us? So that you and me, yes, every single believer in Jesus Christ who is sitting in the sanctuary.

So you and me do what? May proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. The challenge for us today is this. Would you afresh look at your Savior? See the King. Oh, he's coming. He's coming with salvation. He's coming with restoration in his hands. And when he comes, he's going to rule with absolute justice. He will establish peace.

Shouldn't that excite us to tell people? This is coming. Join the church. Join. Come to Christ. Be saved. Receive the gift of salvation and see, look forward to that day when he's coming back. Now, the event that happened at Asbury, so many people I've spoken to, they want to go there and experience it.

Why? Because they think they want to be part of something incredible that the Lord is doing. That's true. But the Lord is accomplishing his mission and building his church everywhere, even here. We just heard from the missionaries this morning and this evening.

He is moving in mighty ways in West Africa, in PNG, and even here in the United States, in the Lowcountry through FCA. The question is, would you and I have the spiritual eyes to open and to look up from our little kingdoms and our little worlds and the things that we do to see the field white unto harvest? I know that we all desire to see hearts changed, life transformed.

You desire that? Preach the gospel. You will see life changed when the Lord works.

And we've seen that through all the testimonies that we've heard this morning and this evening. Now you may say, well, I don't know how to share the gospel. I know the gospel, but I don't know how to share the gospel. I don't know how to preach the gospel. I'm speaking to everyone. Young, the youth is here tonight too, and the oldest person here too. I'm speaking to everybody tonight.

You might say, I don't know how to preach the gospel. Come join us for the Go To Proclaim, which happens every third Saturday at 1 p.m. We meet at Calvary Cafe and we do a short training. And by 1 30, we go out to the greenways. We go to the parks nearby.

We go to apartments nearby. And I have lost count of how many people are willing to have a conversation with you about the gospel. They don't, we don't have enough volunteers to go there and speak to them. We will train you on the job training.

It doesn't get better than that. There might be others who say, you know, I know how to share the gospel, but I don't know where to share the gospel. Join us for our good news clubs. Now we talked, we heard from the Gatawas that they are reaching about 6,000 students in their area of ministry. This is through going to public schools and speaking to the students there.

Did you know that the U.S. government, the law in this land permits us to go into any public school and teach the Bible as an after school club? We need volunteers. We need people to commit about three to four hours in a week for a semester.

It's a six week. We need volunteers. We still have schools who are willing to have us in, but we cannot go in because we don't have enough volunteers. How about our ESL ministry that was mentioned this morning as well?

We have 24 countries represented in our ESL program. The Lord is bringing the nations to us. We need volunteers there too. That is some way you can serve the prison ministry and jail ministry. We do have a potential opening in the prison ministry and jail ministry for weekly or monthly Bible studies, especially in Kershaw. We need volunteers.

How about if there is someone here who says, well, I don't want to travel great distances, but I can do something local. Hey, your neighborhood is a missions field. Our Be A Light ministries are designed to help you, to equip you, to train you to be able to share the gospel with your neighbors conversationally.

We have designed Be A Light ministries after the same model that the missionaries use. Live in your community. Let your neighbors know you are there. You build relationships. You learn the culture of each of these families, build relationship, and then share the gospel. Very simple. We pray, we care, we share, and we disciple Be A Light ministries. There are many other ways you can serve here locally.

You don't have to go back home, sit on your couch, kick up your leg, and wait for that day when you will catch a plane and go to a foreign country. Start today. Start today, and as you do that on a daily basis, as you do that intentionally, regularly, God will open that door if that is your desire to go overseas and to reach one of those unreached people groups. Now the question is, how will you respond? When we see the brokenness in the world, let us not just go inside our rooms and, you know, I'm done with the world, but may it motivate us to look to the king and looking at this king, may that move us into bursts of worship and move us out of our comfort zones and a renewed passion to proclaim his excellencies as ambassadors for Christ.

Would you do that? Now I realize there might be here someone who do not know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. This is the question I want to ask you. Are you ready to meet the king? He's coming in judgment. Scripture clearly says he cannot let sins go unpunished.

But yet in his great love, in his amazing grace and mercy, he sends Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins, for your sins, that if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, the Bible promises you will be saved. What will be your response? Let me pray. Father, thank you again for your word. Father, we believe that you have spoken to us tonight, so we pray that this would not just vanish by the time we get home, but you would keep resounding this in our hearts. And please challenge us, move us out of our comfort zones, give us that spiritual eyes to see the field as white unto harvest. So we will be your ambassadors and we will proclaim your excellencies wherever you have placed us. For we ask all this in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.