THE GOSPEL OF GOD - Hospers PCA



GOD IS REIGNING (2)

(Zechariah 6:1-8)

SUBJECT: God’s reign.

F.C.F: How can I live confidently in a world gone wild?

PROPOSITION: Since God is reestablishing his reign, we must surrender to his purposes.

INTRODUCTION:

A. It is astonishing how relevant God’s Word is to our everyday needs. Today, for example, we celebrate graduations and honor graduates for the accomplishments God has given them. Every end is a beginning, and a host of opportunities and challenges lay before them.

At this time we also celebrate Memorial Day in which we remember and honor those who plunged into the horror of war and gave their lives for our protection and to preserve the blessings of liberty.

At the same time we are concerned and disturbed by the decline of our culture and even more, the failure, even retreat of the church.

B. And God’s Word speaks powerfully to each of these. As we’ve seen in this eight-part vision given to the Prophet Zechariah,

1. God is watching with great interest.

2. God is acting, he is accomplishing his will.

3. God dwells in the midst of his people as our protection and our great treasure.

4. God has even given his Son to rescue us from perishing due to our sins.

5. God has poured out his Spirit upon us to empower us to fulfill his purposes.

6. God calls us to holiness of life—to break with sin or suffer his painful discipline.

7. God warns all who will not repent and surrender to him that he will still punish sin in the extreme.

8. And last time we began to look at the eighth part of this vision, that God is firmly in control, and he will soon act to restore all things. His chariots of wrath are poised to sweep into battle. His strong horses ready to go. His angelic warriors are outraged at the arrogance of puny, human creatures that deny the glory of God and dare to defy will.

1 Again I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, four chariots came out from between two mountains. And the mountains were mountains of bronze. 2 The first chariot had red horses, the second black horses, 3 the third white horses, and the fourth chariot dappled horses—all of them strong…. 7 When the strong horses came out, they were impatient to go and patrol the earth. And he said, “Go, patrol the earth.”

As a response to God’s reign, we said last time that

I. WE MUST SURRENDER TO GOD’S PLANS.

A. What else makes any sense? God is accomplishing his plans. Nothing else will endure. And so we must conform our whole life to his purposes. What this means is that we must live a godward life, fully engaged in all of life for God’s purposes with a single eye and focus. It is to bring all the broken pieces and lay them at his feet. It is to take all that he has given you, every responsibility, every calling and obligation, your family, work, friendships, possessions, talents, and time and devote them all to Jesus Christ and his announced purposes in the world.

B. So whatever stage you are in life right now, whether you are graduating from high school and just starting out, or you’re somewhere in the middle, or even well down the road, God is reigning: only his purposes will stand, and so you must deliberately and decisively pattern your life around his announced will in Scripture, relating every facet of your life directly to his purposes. Anything less is a wasted life.

As the Apostle Paul declared in 1 Corinthians 10:31: “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” Likewise in Colossians 3:17: “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

So, as we saw last time, the first implication of God’s sovereign rule is that we must surrender completely to his plans.

A second implication is this…

II. WE MUST HAVE CONFIDENCE IN GOD’S WORKING.

A. God’s active and complete reign over his creation means that we must live with full assurance in his wisdom, power, and love. I often think of the biblical figure of Joshua poised to go in and take possession of the land God promised them. And it must have been a daunting task. For one thing, there really were giants in the land, tall, muscular warriors who lived in fortified cities. Joshua had seen this himself forty years before. He was one of the twelve spies Moses sent in to spy out the land. He saw the tall warriors and the impregnable cities—how in the world could these roaming nomads compete with that?

For another thing, the people he led did not really have a great track record. They were best known, I suppose, for their unbelief and complaining. We might say that they were Olympic champions, gold medalists in the events of faithlessness and grumbling. And Joshua was supposed to lead this people in conquering the giants who lived in fortified cities.

No matter. God would work through him. In fact, the regular pattern of the Bible is that the weaker but more faithful the people the better. God’s power is on full display when his people simply trust him against the odds and go forward in faith even though there is no possibility of success, humanly speaking. To his church he says, “Here are my mighty weapons of words, water, wine and bread. Now in my name go conquer the world.” It’s crazy, impossible! Yet they did it, trusting him.

B. For what are you trusting God that seems an impossible stretch, humanly speaking? Is it the salvation of some loved one? I’m sure that’s close to the top for most of us. Of course we should recognize that the salvation of anyone is impossible, humanly speaking. God must work supernaturally in the conversion of all who are saved. Jesus said in John 6:44: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.” So we don’t give up hope but keep on praying and persuading. It is no guarantee of success; but it does greatly honor God when we trust him, move forward, and leave the working up to him. He cannot be stopped. He will accomplish every goal. Every one of his elect he will safely see home through the faithful witness of his people.

Which means that…

III. WE MUST HAVE PITY AND PATIENCE TOWARD THE LOST.

A. God’s accomplishing his plans means that he will put down all his enemies and punish the wicked. Let me suggest that you don’t want to be anywhere close by that when that happens. And you don’t want anyone you know to be there either. Those strong horses and the fearsome, angelic warriors on the chariots are impatient to go crush the enemies of God. They see God in his holiness. They are gripped with the white hot outrage that any creatures dare to challenge him. They are champing at the bit, anxious to execute God’s awful judgment on the arrogant, mortal beings who refuse to take their place, bowing before his solemn majesty.

B. There are many deficiencies in the church today, but this one surely tops the list. There is little sense of the holiness and righteousness and wrath of God in the church today. Cowardly church leaders have long fretted that such a negative message might offend the “giving units” and they might not be able to keep up the budget. So, instead, they have focused on the tastes and whims of the “church consumers” and God himself is largely ignored. And they have played right into the hand of our tendency toward sinful self-worship.

People are compulsive, habitual worshipers. We cannot help it. It’s in our DNA. We were created to worship God. But even if we don’t worship God, we can’t escape our design to be worshipers. And so we will always worship something. The names and faces of the false gods are virtually unlimited, but the fact is that there is only, truly one false god we serve, and that is self. No wonder Jesus said that before anyone could come after him he must first deny self (Matthew 16:24, Mark 8:34, Luke 9:23). Self is the great idol, stretching back all the way to the Garden of Eden. The serpent’s false promise to the woman was this: “you will be like God” (Genesis 3:5). Self will be exalted to godhood. Self is the idol above the altar. Money, sex, and power are common avenues to self-satisfaction but the one, true (false) god is really self.

C. And so now the most common church experience is that people busy themselves in the church service with getting their preferences validated, their ego stroked, and their therapeutic needs met. While we may say that it’s all about God, it’s really all about what God can do for me, which means it’s all about me. You recognize, of course, that this is idolatry of the worst sort, for it is self-idolatry. For a long, long time people have come to church services largely to focus on themselves and their felt needs, when God is the only one in the room who is relevant and necessary.

C. And the great tragedy, of course, is that we miss God in all his majesty and glory and so are doomed to narcissistic, two-dimensional lives that rise no higher than the floor. And the watching world, also lost in self-absorption, concludes that we in the church have nothing to offer. They know they can get unvarnished narcissism like this on any corner, only there it is unencumbered by any pretense of religion.

And so none of this is any real help to those who do not know Christ. People do not need a spiritual coach. They don’t need a spiritual sprucing up or makeover. They don’t need a self-help program. They need Christ, who gave his life on a cross to turn aside the judgment of God for his people. He alone can save from the coming wrath of God. For the day is set, the chariots are at the line, the steeds are stamping, and the whip is about to crack. And God will reassert his reign over all things, and all who resist him will be swept away and perish.

CONCLUSION

So let me ask about your life. Are God and his will at the center, somewhere to the side, or, to be honest, at the far fringes, if even in view at all? You must realize that it really is all or nothing, life or death, heaven or hell, for keeps and forever. Everything you see is passing away. Nothing of this age will endure. Jesus challenged us to think with perfect clarity: “What shall it profit a man if he should gain the whole world and yet lose his own soul?” That’s clear vision, a single focus, a life worth living.

Martyred missionary Jim Elliot paraphrased Jesus’ words when said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” That’s the wisest reckoning of all. “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

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