======================================================================== THE REIGN OF A SOVEREIGN GOD by Rolfe Barnard ======================================================================== Summary: Rolfe Barnard's sermon highlights the importance of recognizing and submitting to the sovereignty of Jesus Christ as King in our lives. Duration: 52:26 Topics: "Sovereign God", "Forgiveness Of Sins" Scripture References: Matthew 6:33, John 8:36, Galatians 5:1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ In this sermon, the preacher talks about his experience approaching the choir and noticing a vacant seat with his name on it. He emphasizes the importance of being chosen by God and being able to serve Him wholeheartedly. The preacher also discusses the power and authority of Jesus Christ as the King who will reign until all his enemies are defeated. He highlights the significance of forgiveness of sins and the blessedness of being counted righteous by God. The sermon concludes with a reminder that through Jesus, believers can be set free from sin and experience true freedom. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Now if you turn tonight to the book of Acts, chapter 17. I want to read it to me in your presence. The first nine verses of Acts 17. Now when they passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging that Christ must need to suffer and risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ. And some of them believed and consorted with Paul inside us, and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the cheap women not a few. But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain rude fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to burn them out to the people, fellow Paul and his associates. And when they found that they weren't there, they drew Jason and certain brethren under the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also. King Jason hath received them, and took them in his house. And these disturbers, and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar. These Jews have got deadly loyal to Rome all of a sudden, and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus. This context of course, called message to the Jews, divided them, and the ones who turned against his, having alleged that this Jesus whom he preached was the god anointed, sent Messiah. And they got a bunch of fellows together, and started an uproar in the city, and went in the spirit of the mocks and riots of today, and surrounded the house of a man by the name of Jason, the man that had burned these disturbers. These fellows, they paid the compliment of saying that turning the world upside down would bring them out. They weren't there. And they brought Jason and his men, accused them of having harbored these terrible fellows. And as always, the enemies of the gospel, and of the god of the gospel, they misrepresented Paul's message, they misrepresented his motives, and misrepresented his methods. He wasn't trying to turn the world upside down, but that's always the way the enemy works. But the heart of their accusation was that Paul, and those associated with him, were preaching a terrible, terrible, terrible heresy, saying that there is another king, one he. This rainy night, I wonder if you would join me one more time, gladly embrace these words, and take them to be our boasts. There is another king, one he. Could we this rainy night, this payday night, this football night, this carnival night, all over America, could we, while the church doors are still open, I don't think they'll be open much longer, but I think that I hope to see the time when church gatherings like this will be used as honky-tonks or something, right here in America. It's happened that way in every country, that has given lip service to the gospel, and denied the kingship, the lordship, the reign of Jesus Christ. I don't know why we should expect an exception here, but I welcome the time that's ahead of us. I wonder if in your heart tonight, you could say, I'm not ashamed to own my allegiance to this other king. I was sitting at a banquet table in Chicago, in the Victor Center there, speaking on the radio with a Christian businessman, and I forget all the details, they had a banquet, a lot of folks were there. I was sitting right next to a man, and he spent several minutes criticizing some missionaries that had gone from America to Japan. And when the war broke out, they were given the choice of going to the concentration camp, or swearing their allegiance to the kingship, the lordship, of the elite. And some of the missionaries crossed their spiritual fingers, and rather than show up in a concentration camp, or be killed, they acknowledged what the Japanese, of course, believed, that their emperor was Caesar, Kyrios, lord. And this gentleman sitting beside me was very, very bold in his criticism. He really gave them down the river for not standing up there in Japan, and refusing to bow and call Emperor Hirohito lord. And he asked me what I thought about it, and I tried to give him an honest answer, that since it is 5,000 miles from Chicago to Tokyo, you know, I didn't think I was capable of making much of what they did, since I don't know what I would do. Do you? You're dead sure you know? You've never been tested. I haven't. Have you? I wish we could be so tested in this country that we could have some real, sure, no, Christianity. And I wish I knew how to bring to pass. I'll try to do it under God. If nothing else happens in a given day, if I could bring a little bit of what I think I want to do in this atmosphere of safety and complacency and easiness, then you have to let me go. I get out on a limb so far that maybe I could tell just where the deep-down real allegiance of my heart is. There is another king beside the Sovereign of blessings, Antichrist, who saturated our day. There is another king and his name is Jesus. And of course it is the favorite expression of the preacher. Let's begin to use the trite truism that there ever was a time when our fading spirits and our drooping hearts need to have a call. Not only what we are dying for, what we are living for. The call is the call of Almighty God. We in the language of some of the old Puritans would say that God created the heavens and the earth for the one purpose of a kind of glory. Of the son of his love. Now that's too deep for me. But I wish I could get some of it in my spirit and in my soul. Could you join me tonight? Do you think you could? Waving a little bit, trembling at the audacity of it, and acknowledge Jesus Christ as King. First of all because of the crowns he wore. Revelation 19 and 12 said on his head were many crowns. We've been through the pages of this book. That is the record of the revelation that God came in and wore it. Now we come to the Old Testament and the New. We see that he is the King over all creation. One verse of Scripture will suffice for the Lord. Most high. He is terrible. He is a great King over all the earth. He is the King over all creation. He is the King over Israel. Revelation chapter 15 says he is King over the nations. And the next verse says he is King over the saints. He is King over all creation. A King is responsible for his subjects. A King is responsible for the well-being of his subjects. A King, and hear me, only a King has responsibility to save and preserve his people. And thank God only a King has the power to do what his title demands that he do. After all is said and done, if this be God's truth, this book, if this be a faithful record, God coming to man, confronting man, and we believe it is, then the one King above everything that Ralph Barnard would become a seeker of would be that God would give me the ability to crown Jesus Christ the totalitarian ruler and King of my life. That's not only the demand of God, but it's the greatest privilege that any human being will ever have. To have the ability, born in sin, born with a nature bent to evil and not good at all, born a rebel, and a rebel against the rule of God. Oh, what a miracle, if Ralph Barnard's ever able to enthrone Jesus Christ as Lord in my life. Here is the whole issue around the gospel today. Here is the heart of what is called Calvinism. Whether our witness and whether our testimony shall be used of God to turn some men and women to become seekers after God that he'll grant unto them an ability they do not have to bow their knee to and crown Jesus Christ. And since then now, Christ can only be known and obeyed and laid hold of and appropriated. Christ can only be known through discipleship. What a terrible thing it would be to go through life without ever becoming a lifelong seeker after the gift of God's grace, the faith that enables this poor beggar to lay hold of the King of gold and experience the rustling of the garments of his power in my life. We will never travel through the traditions and provisions of our days and learn by experience that the only place that has any power to transform a nation, a church, or an individual that the only place that has any power to transform and change men and women are the hands of the enthroned Lord. Surely the one question worth answering is the crown of my life upon his head. And that God had I been able to give him the only thing I own, that's myself. Can't give him any money, the cattle on a thousand hills it is, silver and gold it is. Can't give him any time, our breath is in his hands. Long since we quit talking about giving him our talents, we ain't got none except one thing. I ain't got anything on God's head but myself. Oh, have I been able to put a crown on his head and that crown be, here I am Lord. I don't know what on God's earth you want, Renner, but here I am. Here I am. And many of us are going to rip hell wide open substituting preaching for crowning Christ. Trying to put Christ through the door is giving him some of our time and what we call our talents. Some of the money he gives us, we've given everything except ourselves. But he ain't settled for anything except us. We gladly own him as king because of the power he wields. He's no Johnny-come-lately. He's not somebody who ran for office and we're not called to go out and electioneer for him. He's no paper king. He's a man with a mission and he's going to get the job done. I confess to you that I don't know which way to go. I confess to you that the only hope I have is it's going to get worse. It'll get better. I confess to you I'm almost hemmed up to where I'm going to have to find my joy in the sense of doing the will of God because a good church ain't having much success. I confess to you that I may yet get to the place that there's just one thing that counts. Not what happens. But that I believe someday in the spirit of Christ not the spirit of resignation but the spirit of victory and determination as in the garden of Gethsemane. And I don't know whether you've got the interpretation but I know this is exactly what happened. My Lord as a man in such a terrible battle fought so until he could say not my will be done but mine if it kills me. God knows life would be worth living I expect if I could ever come to that place. But bless God we do not own allegiance to a paper king to a patinda after a throne. And when I am dead I have to believe that a scripture like this came from 15 and can't bear a while when my saviour's spirit sort of begins to ebb and flow again and I spit in the devil's face and cut him out and tell him to go back to where he goes where he belongs and get up with a ring of satin on the bones and demand that this world sits for one purpose that we might be seekers after him and find another to find if we seek him in time that we are not shooting in a curve we are bidding and begging and pleading with men and women to swear allegiance to the king of all authority who is never going to quit until he accomplishes the mission that God the Father sent him to do. And so I warn my holy spirit to believe now again that a man is like this man come at the end after he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God even the Father may be there after he shall have put down evil above all evil and put down all authority and put down all power for he must reign now don't get me fired up in that ring of stars whenever it is alright with me but he must reign I think he's reigning now maybe you don't I think he hadn't done this for you yet I think he still has to be him he has to be him he hadn't recalled a great commission on his promise and if the Lord against the whole world howling at me is now I'm still going to believe him to say oh bless God there's a new body of angels there's a new body of angels there's a king of one king which has been given to swear allegiance to the one who believes he believes he must reign and face God and the devil himself and all the demons of the king and the rule of darkness and all the machinations of demons and all the backsliding of all people has been cut they're not going to put Jesus Christ out of business and the angel he has to take them all into his humble seat and he has to do the best and do that thing best God best truly and all things shall be subdued unto him oh Lord give me a little a little spittle each of me I've got nothing to say on your body you tell me Lord you can't Lord will you get the job done Jesus Christ is going to bring this world under the sovereign rule of God and all things shall be subdued first unto Jesus Christ all things shall be subdued unto him all things not anything is going to escape this subjection of all of themselves to Christ and all things shall be subdued unto him then shall the Son also himself be subdued unto him the full kingdom of the Father let me go down and bring this world back under the sovereign rule of God he does it by grace of power but what of his grace of power he ain't going to quit he ain't going to quit for everything has been brought under subjection to him so will you get that job he's going to turn the outfit over to the Father now do you understand this kind of language that God may be all in all oh my Lord and goodness thanks be unto you I tell you right now boy now you young people you're so young you ain't got no sense but you listen to me now I remember when I was your age they tried to tell me something I used to smile I wouldn't listen to them but they sent me out something in the ordained and I'm glad I got ordained back then I couldn't pass the test now but I got by with it that's right and uh I remember the fellow that was preaching my ordination he didn't bring me a basket of cinnamon he said now brother Rob there'll be lots of nights when you walk the floor all night long you'll cry to God and the Heavens will knock at you well I wouldn't want to go that too strong huh? yes God's a good thing we don't have no sense at all when we're getting in all this isn't it? God bless you good-bye go have some trouble good-bye well I wouldn't want to go that too strong huh? yes God's a good thing we don't have no sense at all when we're getting in all this God bless you good-bye go have some trouble good-bye oh yes God now there's one thing brother soak your soul in it bathe your spirit in it and I wish if you get in this battle so we'd have to do this brother yes God I'm representing the winning cause I know who's going to win the war that's right brother he must reign till this world not see but subdue under him and when he gets every last one of his enemies and puts his feet over him bless God he's going to attack the subdued world I expect to be around as your outborn we own this king because he's got power to accomplish the job Jesus Christ now I've been studying a few years and the longer I study the less I know about something but the one thing that I know is in the eternal purpose of an almighty God and that's to have a great big choir in glory that can sing the song of Moses slain of the law and the lamb healed of the gospel by its spirit they kept lying all the day till noon that he didn't know about one thing he didn't know what else God had in mind he wasn't clear about it he wasn't kind or pious but he knew this one thing God was going to accomplish he was going to bring unto himself a holy people I'd love to be in that day I'd love to be in that day I'd love to be like old Faithful when he's approaching the glory land according to John Bunyan and as soon as he let him inside the gate he said he did hear such singing that he'd never heard and he said he did look and he aspired the choir of glory singing and he said I did walk me toward the choir and he said the closer I got to the choir the more beautiful the music was and he said after a while I did notice that there was a vacant seat in the choir and I did keep me walking and when finally I got in I saw that there was some lettering on that vacant seat and I kept walking and soon I could see that there was a name written on that seat and said I did see as I kept walking and that my name was written on that seat and that I did come to it and I did sit me down and that I did begin to sing and I never missed a note he said I knew the music I'd been singing in my wilderness journey on the way slain by the Lord the song of Moses and the Lamb all to be numbered among the people that God brings to himself through the son of his love to be a holy people in a holy place serving the holy God and looking at his face we all as kings because of his power we all as kings because of his gifts God please gifts my Lord God the king gives he gives pardon and forgiveness of sin be it known unto you that for men and brethren I wish we could have an atmosphere in this country where this would be held with joy oh I wish I could come to your door tomorrow with a message of a pardon pardon and forgiveness and you'd say oh isn't that wonderful oh I'm so glad to hear that if God should mark the nick of this song say who should be able to stand nobody but the next verse says there is forgiveness that would be that I may still feel be it known oh I wish I knew how for myself and the people in this hall for fear of apostasy and godlessness and the threatening of I wish I could lift up my voice and somebody would hear that they need a pardon and they desperately stand in need of the forgiveness oh blessed it be for them to hear that we have someone that can hear his name through this man we preach unto you the forgiveness of sin now I never preach a sermon but what a young man's face comes I see him with my eyes as I'm looking at you I rather preach publicly that I don't see his face and that's the young man that helped me organize my infidel college he's been in hell these forty odd years and I've been preaching and I don't understand the great doctrines of the bible but all I have to do is cry a little bit and rejoice a little bit and wonder a little bit and sometimes worship a little bit is to remember two young college students I was the president and they was the vice president we started an infidel club in the college one of them was shot and killed so we graduated and I've been preaching for forty three years what's the difference I don't know folks do you know what I mean no oh what a wonder the forgiveness of sin oh how sweet the forgiveness of sin oh the monarch oh somebody who has authority can descend against oh the blessed you know it may be sometime I'll be able to read but in me well I've got picture well he's now the minister now oh the casual my lord demands continual involvement in his program I knew how I'd set as a goal that one day I could say move over Paul I thought it would come I kept the faith I finished didn't pull out on the way I finished my course I'd be alright with continual involvement in his program don't think you can love this person by being involved in his purpose and program and if he'd be called to face days as dark as Noah's face I'd like to be a man of a company of people that didn't pull out by the way that kept hammering nails into the yard and saying everything inside seemed to be everything outside gone but ain't nothing happened enough I must to be involved in the same thing the Lord Jesus Christ is involved with bringing the men and women back to God's submission to the rule of almighty God I'm so glad I'm so glad for the good news of the kingdom of God it's sweet my folks my Lord said my Lord's crazy he's telling the truth the Lord has been able to come under day by day reach the middle put an hour on his yoke it's sweet brother it's easy brother there's no hell in it there's no heartache in it there's peace in it and joy I wonder brother this will come brother Jackson Jackson Jackson Jackson Jackson Jackson Jackson Jackson Jackson Jackson Jackson Jackson Jackson ======================================================================== Audio: https://sermonindex1.b-cdn.net/0/SID0665.mp3 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/rolfe-barnard/the-reign-of-a-sovereign-god/ ========================================================================