Let’s turn now in our Bibles to the ninety-fifth psalm as we continue our journey through the Bible. This ninety-fifth psalm, as we mentioned this morning, is known as an invitational psalm because it is inviting us to come and to sing unto the Lord.
O COME, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation (95:1).
Singing unto the Lord has always been a very important part of the worship of Judaism and of the worship of the church. You think of how many songs that have been inspired by the Lord; songs that lead people to worship, songs that express his glory and his wonders, songs that express praise and thanksgiving unto him. We have hymnals filled with songs. People inspired to write songs that will give glory and honor unto him. The book of Psalms itself was the Hebrew songbook. These were the lyrics for their songs, much as in the back of our book we have a lot of choruses where we just have the lyrics and we know the melodies. The psalms were the lyrics, they new the melodies and they sang these songs.
It is interesting, of course, that Jesus sang the hymns out of the psalms. I would have loved to have heard that. I wished they had tape recorders in those days. It would be such a blessing it says, “He and his disciples sang a hymn” at the close of the Last Supper and then they went out to the Mount of Olives. Wouldn’t you love to have a recording of Jesus and the disciples singing a hymn. It was probably the one hundred and eighteenth psalm. That’s sort of the traditional hymn that closes off the feast of the Passover. It would have been glorious to have heard that. “Let us sing” (95:1) a very important part of worship.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, (96:2).
In Psalm one hundred, which is a part of ninety-five through one hundred. They sort of all tie together.

“Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all ye land. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before his presence with singing and be thankful unto him. Enter his gates with thanksgiving”.

So let us come before his presence with thanksgiving. As they would be entering into the temple precincts for worship they would enter with singing. One of the most exciting things I think over in Israel, even at the present time, is on Friday evenings when they get ready to celebrate Passover. The Western Wall becomes the center of activity and celebration. Hundreds upon hundred of Jews gather there at the Western Wall to welcome the Sabbath and to offer their praise and their worship unto God.
There is a school that they have for young rabbi’s that is in the old quarter of Jerusalem there. These young men come down the steps and across the pavement arm in arm dancing and singing. Singing psalms of thanksgiving as they come to worship the Lord there at the Western Wall, sort of a traditional kind of a thing. It’s always an exciting moment to watch them as they come down sort of with a little dance step. There arms are around each other about four abreast and coming to the Western Wall to worship with songs of thanksgiving. Then as they get down there they form a circle and they begin to sing and dance and so forth before the Lord.
It’s just an inspiring sight. I’m always inspired by that. I somehow wish that somehow we could incorporate that here at Calvary Chapel where we could come in singing. We wouldn’t wait for us to get up here and say, “Now let’s have a word of prayer and begin” but it would be something in our hearts that would be spontaneous of thanksgiving and worship unto God. They were encouraged before the Lord.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms (95:2).
That is the singing right out of these psalms.
It is interesting to me that we are encouraged to this kind of worship and praise and singing unto the Lord not that the Lord would bless us. So many times we hear that today, “Let’s worship the Lord, let’s open our hearts to him so God can come down and work in our lives and bless his people”. That wasn’t the motivation. It wasn’t to motivate God to respond to us but this is encouraged as a response to God. It isn’t “so the Lord” but it is “For the Lord is a great God”. In other words, we don’t worship him in order to receive some kind of blessing or benefit but we worship him for what he is and for what he has done.
For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods (95:3).
The Bible does recognize that there are many gods but not true gods yet idols that people worship. Passions that govern people’s lives, philosophies and ideals by which people live which, in essence, become their gods. So the psalmist is declaring that he is the “King above all gods” (95:3). no matter what it is that you may have enthroned in your life, what it is that you are worshiping. What is the first primary thrust of your heart? Our God, Jehovah is the King above all Gods.
In his hand are the deep place of the earth: (95:4).
The depths and all the heights.
the strength of the hills is his also (95:4).
In our lives we have experiences where we go through the valleys. He’s the God of the valley. We have glorious mountaintop experiences. He’s the God of the mountains. In the Old Testament we remember when the children of Israel were fighting against an enemy they met them in the hills. The children of Israel triumphed. So the strategist of the enemy troops got together and said, “Let’s draw them down into the valley and fight them in the valley because they no doubt worship the God of the hills”. They were attributing their victory to the fact that he was the God of the hills. So the Lord said, “Go down and meet them in the valley. I’ll utterly wipe them out because they said I am the God of the hills and not the God of the valley. I’ll show them that I’m the God of everything”. They met them next time in the valley and God overcame them in the valley.
So it is in our lives. He is the God of the valleys, he’s there. Many times we lose that consciousness of him as we are going through a deep valley. As we are going through times of suffering we sort of lose the consciousness of him but he is the God of the valleys as well as the hills.
The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land (95:5).
I love to fly over Monument Valley. I love to look at those beauties out there just rising up out of the desert floor and you wonder just how in the world they got there. If everything else washed away why is it that they remain? It’s just a beautiful site.
The geologist has many ideas of how the earth was formed. If you go over to the area of Rosh Hanikrah, which is right on the northern border of Israel with Lebanon on the seacoast, there is the most interesting formation there. There is a huge sedimentary mountain there but in this sedimentary mountain there are all of these argots, just all of these argots. Now just how did all of these argots get dispersed along this strata of sentiment that is formed into that mountain?
I find it absolutely fascinating as I study a lot of the geology. I find it absolutely fascinating as you try to figure out whether this was laid down over years by sentiment process or whether this was carved out by a huge flood or whether this happened at a time of a polar axis shift when the great oceans of the upper western area, Utah and all, flushed on down with perhaps a tilt of the earth or a rising of that area. Was the Grand Canyon formed by a mighty rush of water over a short period of time? How did God do it? He formed it with his hands. It’s absolutely glorious, the mysteries. The book Earth’s in Upheaval by Immanuel Velikovsky points out a lot of mysteries of geological strata’s and things that we still don’t have any understanding of. We guess, that’s all.
O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker (95:6).
In their forms of worship there was that bowing before the Lord. Bowing in a sign of submission as a servant bows to the Lord. I think that it is good to bow before the Lord. It sort of reminds us of relationship. “Let us kneel before the Lord our maker” (96:6). Again, not “so that he will move in our hearts” or “so that he will hearken to us” but it is in response to him, not trying to get him to respond to us.
For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand (95:7).
We’re his people, we’re his sheep. Now the psalmist exhorts them to hear the word of the Lord.
To day if ye will hear his voice (95:7).
How important that we learn to be sensitive to the voice of the Lord. God has spoken to us, every one of us. The Bible is God’s word to you. It is amazing how that as you read the Bible God so of ten will personalize it as a scripture will just seem to come right off the pages and jump right into your heart and you say, “That’s for me”. It’s a wonderful thing how the word of God could just speak to our hearts. It’s also wonderful how God will speak to us, many times, through a sermon.
A lot of times on Sunday morning someone will come up and say, “I really appreciated that sermon this morning and it’s marvelous that other people were there to listen to it but I know that you were just speaking directly to me. That one was for me”. How many times God speaks to our hearts through the exposition of the word and how many times God speaks to our hearts directly? “Today, if you will hear his voice” (95:7). The psalmist encourages them.
Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work (95:8-9).
There’s always that danger of hardening our hearts to God and to the things of God. The encouragement and the exhortation is to not harden your heart. As did the children of Israel in the wilderness provoked God. They tempted him, they proved him and they saw his works.
The idea of tempting God is an interesting thought. When Satan was tempting Jesus one of the temptations took place when Satan took him to the pinnacle of the temple. There he quoted to him a passage of scripture out of the psalms encouraging Jesus to jump from the pinnacle of the temple some three hundred and fifty feet to the rocks below. “Why don’t you jump? For it is written he will give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways, to bare thee up lest at any time you dash your foot against a stone. You’ve got the promise of God’s word why don’t you just jump. See if God will do it. See if you have enough faith”. Jesus said, “It is written again thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God”. You are not to deliberately put yourself in jeopardy to prove some promise of the scripture. You’re not to go out and run all of your charge cards up to the max just to see if “I will supply all of your needs” is a true scripture.
The people back in the hills of Kentucky who in the midst of their religious fervor get out the rattlesnakes and begin to pass rattlesnakes around because of a scripture in Mark that says, “If they take up any deadly thing it shall not harm them”. That would be classified of tempting God. I believe that that scripture has its application probably in the mission field because that was the context in which Jesus gave it. He said, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved”. In that context he said, “and these signs shall follow them that believe” and he talked about drinking deadly things and not being harmed and taking up serpents.
So many times as missionaries are carrying the gospel into all the world they are exposed to those dangers and to poisonous snakes, to waters that are polluted. I believe that you can take that promise of God and if you’re bitten by a snake like Paul on the island. A deadly viper came out of the fire and fascinated himself on Paul and they all began to look at him and say “this guy must be a rank criminal” because though he escaped from the storm and the sea, the gods aren’t going to let him live. They just waited for Paul to go into convulsions and roll over and die. He just shook the thing back into the fire, went on gathering the wood and tossing it in. Pretty soon they began to look in another way they said, “This guy must be a god”. There was that promise that the serpents wouldn’t harm them. He was engaged in the carrying of the gospel.
To just deliberately go out and gather rattlesnakes and decide to test your faith and get into a religious frenzy passing them around is tempting God. To just pass around a vile of poison and let everyone drink to find out who has faith is tempting God. We are not to deliberately put ourselves in jeopardy to prove some scripture or to prove some promise, as Jesus pointed out to Satan. People have tempted God. We tempt God with our unbelief.
The children of Israel, God had been providing for them manna in the wilderness. They got tired of it and they said, “We hate this bland stuff. We’re sick of it. Can got provide meat or flesh in the wilderness?” So the Lord told Moses, “Tell the people to get up the next morning and get some sticks”. The quail came flying in at about three feet high. The guys went out and started batting them. Kids began to gather them and put them in the piles. Even then their lusts overcame them. They were gathering more than what they could possibly eat. They started to just eat the quail, so hungry for flesh. While the meat was still in their mouth God sent a plague. He said “He gave them their desires of their heart but lenience of soul”.
The example here that he is using, don’t harden your heart but listen to God. Don’t harden your heart to the word of God, which they have done. God had their law but they hardened their hearts to God’s word. As a result, they did not enter in to God’s rest but they perished in the wilderness.
In the book of Jude in verse twenty-one he exhorts us to keep ourselves in the love of God. By that, Jude is not saying that we should be so sweet and so kind and so precious, loving and generous that God can’t help but love us. “In while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” that’s when God commanded his loved. He loved you as rotten as you were. What does it mean to keep yourself in the love God? It means this, God loves you and because of his love he wants to manifest or demonstrate that love to you. It is the desire of love to demonstrate itself in giving. God wants to give to you and bless you. Keep yourself in that place where God could do the things he’s wanting to do in your life with all consistency with his nature holiness. Keep yourself where God could work and do the things he’s desiring to do.
He gives us examples of those who failed and the first example is the children of Israel. “Who though they were delivered out of the bondage of Egypt yet they perished in the wilderness”. A tremendous example of the failure of man to enter into all that God has for them. God has a life of victory for you in Christ, and abundant life for you in Christ. He doesn’t intend that your Christian experience be like a yo-yo, just up and down all the time. He intends that you be more than conqueror through his love and that you live a life of radiant victory in Jesus Christ. If you will keep yourself in the love of God that’s exactly where he will bring you and that’s exactly what he’ll do for you.
So many times, like the children of Israel, we come out of the bondage of sin and we come out of the world beginning our journey towards that walk and life in the spirit but somewhere we get short circuit and we stop short of all that God is wanting to do for us. Many times I see Christians spending their entire Christian life in the wilderness, they never do enter into the full rich life of the spirit. So like the children in the wilderness it’s a constant struggle, it’s a constant battle. One day they’re near the land of promise, they come close to the borders but then they begin journeying back towards Egypt again. They begin to think of Egypt and all of the onions, leaks and garlic. That taste of the world is still in them.
A desire for God is there but still that strong taste for the world and the things of it. Thus they are torn. Too much of Jesus to be happy in the world but too much of the world to be happy in Jesus. That’s a miserable place to be.
It’s like that apple tree that we told you about before. It was on the border of the orchard. Every fall the little boys, as they would go back to school, would watch that tree to look for a little color to come in the apples. As soon as they saw the color they began to beat the tree to knock the apples down so they could get them before the farmer did. The farmer knowing what the little boys were doing would go out every morning would take a look at that tree that was right on the edge of the orchard with part of it hanging over the fence. He would watch carefully for the apples to turn a little color so he could beat the tree to get the apples before the boys. The farmer said as a result of that tree being right on the border of his orchard it was the most beat tree in his entire orchard.
I’ve seen a lot of beat Christians. They are trying to live on the border. They’ve tried to see how much of the world they could hold onto and still maintain an experience with Christ. The children of Israel, they wandered in that wilderness. They spent their lives in that wilderness because they didn’t listen to God who said, “I will go before you. I will drive out your enemies from before your face. Everyplace you have set your foot I have given it to you”. But they said, “We will be crazed. They will kill us, they will kill our children. We can’t go in there is no way we can do it”. Thus they provoked God in their failure of faith to just take to word of God and the promise of God and step out and trust God.
Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, (95:10).
That’s where the commitment is really made. They erred by not making a true and full commitment, which is the commitment of your heart. The commitment of your mind is a shallow commitment. “I have decided to follow Jesus” well that’s great if it’s from the heart. If it’s from the mind, tomorrow you could decide to do something else. It’s very easy to change your mind. You ever notice how quickly you can change your mind? The least little difficulty could cause you to change your mind. “Well let’s go down this road” and it gets bumpy then “Let’s go back, let’s take the highway”. It’s very easy to change your mind than take many rough spots. It takes the work of the spirit to change the heart. Making that commitment of the heart, they’ve erred in their heart. Their commitment wasn’t of the heart.
and they have not known my ways: (95:10).
Oh, that I might know the ways of the Lord.
Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest (95:11).
In Hebrews chapter four we have an interesting commentary on this. If you want to read the commentary sometime else, I’m not going to go into it tonight. There’s just a good commentary on this passage of scripture as the writer of Hebrews encourages us to enter into that rest declaring “For there is a rest for the people of God and they that have entered into that rest have ceased from their own labors”. So he says something that sounds almost paradoxical, he said, “Let us therefore labour that we might enter into the rest”. The “rest” is from a total commitment of my heart to the Lord.
As I commit myself totally I then enter into the rest because I know that at this point my life is in God’s hands and he’s able to keep me. My life is in God’s hands and nothing happens to me but what God has not allowed it to happen for a good purpose. So I rest, I don’t get all frantic over the things of life, I don’t begin to panic and get all upset. It is in God’s hands, win or lose it’s all in his hands. My life belongs to him.
These next psalms are sometimes referred to as millennial psalms. These are the psalms that anticipate the Lords return and his reign. Thus in anticipation of the fulfillment of the prophecies and the promises of God, the reign of Christ upon the earth during the millenium. These psalms were written for that period of history which is not yet history because it’s still future but one day will be. So that glorious day when Jesus reigns.
O SING unto the LORD a new song: sing unto the LORD, all the earth (96:1).
The Bible tells us that he shall reign over all the earth. “As of me and I will give you the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thine possession”.
Sing unto the LORD, bless his name; (96:2).
That is the name of YAWEH.
shew forth his salvation from the day to day. Declare his glory among the heathen, (96:2-3).
“I will give the heathen for thine inheritance”.
his wonders among all people (96:3).
As the Lord established his kingdom over all the earth.
For the LORD is great, (96:4).
Again, it isn’t sing and declare in order that God will do something for you. It’s in response to God.
For the LORD is great, and greatly to be praised: he is to be feared [reverenced]
above all gods (96:4).
In several of these psalms in a row we are going to find reference to these gods, small “g”.
For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens (96:5).
All the gods are idols, that is, they’ve been made by man but the God we worship is the one who made man and made the heavens. So you worship a man made god or your worship the God who made man. Paul the apostle points out that the problem with man, the pseudo-intellectual, who has rejected the knowledge of God and did not want to retain God in his mind professing himself to be wise he actually became a fool. He worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever more.
The world around you is in that very position. They are worshiping and serving creature pleasures, man made things, materialism. Man is always making new things to be worshiped. To worship man’s gods could be extremely expensive. To worship the God who made man, that makes sense. The gods of the nations are idols, they’ve made them themselves but the Lord, he made the universe.
Honour and majesty are before him: strength and beauty are in his sanctuary (96:6).
The strength that we find as we come into the sanctuary of God, the beauty of worshiping the Lord together.
Give unto the LORD, O ye kindreds [families] of the people, give unto the LORD glory and strength. Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: (96:7-8).
The name YAWEH is a strong tower, the righteous run into it and are safe. The name of the Lord, he exalts his name even above his word. Holy and reverent is his name.
Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come into his courts. O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness: fear [reverence] before him, all the earth. Say among the heathen that the LORD reigneth: (96:8-10).
The future glory when Jesus reigns. Go out and declare it.
the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved: (96:10).
When he reigns there will be no more wars and all of the turmoil in the economy that are creating all of the greed. It will all be gone, the Lord reigns.
he shall judge the people righteously. Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof (96:10-11).
The reign of the Lord is going to affect the entire earth. It’s going to affect nature. Prior to the destruction of the world by the flood the earth was a far different place than it is today. It was far more fertile than it is now. In fossil form they have found asparagus ferns that were some sixty feet tall. How would you like to have that kind of asparagus fern in your garden? Man lived to be an average of nine hundred years old. Prior to the flood the conditions of the earth were far different than they are today. Siberia was like Hawaii. There were mammoths that they have uncovered in the frozen tundra of Siberia with tropical vegetation in their digestive tracts. Siberia was once a lush tropical jungle. The South Pole was covered with forests. They have found great layers of coal two hundred feet under the ice of the South Pole. Once a tropical jungle.
The whole conditions of the earth were vastly different then they are today. When Christ reigns I believe that God is going to restore the earth to those pre-flood conditions. I believe again he’ll put a canopy around the earth that will protect it from those ultraviolet rays where you can go out and get as tan as you want without having to worry about skin cancer. All of the cosmetic industries will be put out of business, all of these wrinkle free creams and that kind of stuff. Dentists won’t have any work to do and Doctors will have to find a new profession. “The LORD reigns, let the earth rejoice”.
Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof. Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice (96:11-12).
That’s interesting to me. Do you remember when Jesus was making his triumphant entry into Jerusalem and the disciples were putting their clothes in the path in front of the little donkey? They were waving the palm branches and they were crying “Hosanna, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord”. The Pharisees said to Jesus, “Lord rebuke your disciples. That’s blaspheme. They are acknowledging you as the Messiah publicly”. Jesus said, “I’m going to tell you something. If they at this time would hold their peace these very stones would cry out”.
Here he’s talking about the trees rejoicing. Is it possible that there are aspects and facets of fallen nature that we don’t know anything about? That when the Lord reigns and things are restored to their original condition we’ll find out a lot of interesting things about nature. Of course, I’ve heard the pine trees sing and I love their music as the wind blows through them, my what a neat sound.
Isn’t that what Paul said in Romans chapter eight “For we and all creation groaning and travail together until now as we await for the manifestation of the sons of God to with the redemption of our bodies”. All of creation is under the curse of sin that is here on the earth groaning and travailing. When Jesus comes and reigns, O what a new day for the earth, what a new day for man. Thus the rejoicing, even nature itself coming alive in a greater way rejoicing and praising God.
Before the LORD: for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth (96:13).
Now Jesus tells us that as he’s talking to the disciples about his return, “Lord, what will be the signs of your coming and the end of the ages?” He tells them about it and then he speaks about when he comes he “will gather together the nations for judgement”. He’s going to judge the earth in righteousness and then he will “separate as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats”. He’ll say to those on his right side “Come ye blessed of the father inherit the kingdom prepared for you”. To those on the left “Depart from me you worthless of iniquity in Gahanna which was prepared for Satan and his angels”. Judging the earth but he will judge it righteously.
In the prophecy concerning the Messiah he said, “He shall sit upon the throne of David to order it and to establish it in justice and in judgement from henceforth even forevermore”. So the Lord is coming. He’s coming to reign over the earth, to judge righteously over the world and over the people with his truth. A glorious day.
Again, Psalm ninety-seven rejoicing. It’s a millennial psalm. Jesus is reigning.
THE LORD reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles [coastal area] be glad thereof. Clouds and darkness are round about him: righteousness and judgement are the habitation of his throne. A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about (97:1-3).
When the Lord comes the enemies will be destroyed with the sword that goes forth out of his mouth, the fire goes before him and burns his enemies all around.
His lightnings enlightened the world: the earth saw, and trembled. The hills melted like wax at the presence of the LORD, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. The heavens declare his righteousness, and all the people see his glory (97:4-6).
A glorious day, I can hardly wait. I look around the world today and I see the things that are going on. I see the blasphemies of man and I get so sick at heart, so sick. O the Lord reigns. How I long for that day. Jesus said we’re to pray for it “Pray thy kingdom come”. What are we praying for? The day when the Lord will come and reign, when the earth rejoices. We have such a wrong attitude, our thoughts concerning heaven. How glorious it is to be there in his kingdom where he reigns where there is no sin and there is no corruption, there’s no affective sin. How glorious that is. How absolutely joyous, ecstatic, beyond our imagination. Yet when our friend dies we go around mourning and crying “They’re going to miss out going to Disneyland next week”. God help us.
“The heavens declare his righteousness” (97:6). We remember Psalm nineteen,

“The heavens are speaking to us, the earth shows its handiwork. Day unto day they utter their speech, night unto night their voice goeth forth. The heavens declare his righteousness.”

All people see his glory in the universe looking at the stars.
Confounded be all they that serve graven [carved] out images (97:7).
Those that serve material things, those that are servants of materialism they are confounded and confused.
that boast themselves of idols: (97:7).
My new Ferrari,
worship him, all ye gods. Zion heard, and was glad; and the daughters of Judah rejoiced because of thy judgments, O LORD. For thou, LORD, art high above all the earth: thou art exalted far above all gods (97:7-9).
Again the recognition there are gods, people have their gods that they have made, their graven images and the things in the material world.
Ye that love the LORD, hate evil: (97:10).
Now the world today is saying what to you concerning evil? Be tolerant. This whole thing of toleration of evil is plaguing our world. As a child of God you are to hate evil.
he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked (97:10).
Thank God. There’s a promise, take it. Maybe some of you are being oppressed by the wicked, he delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.
Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart. Rejoice in the LORD, ye righteous: and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness (97:11-12).
We didn’t get as far as I wanted but I want to look at verse thirteen in chapter ninety-six and we will look at verse nine in chapter ninety-eight. We’ll notice that they are the same basically.

“Before the LORD: for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, ad the people with his truth” (Psalm 96:13).

“Before the LORD; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity” (Psalm 98:9).

So the only difference is the last word. One is “truth” and the other is “equity”. The promise is that the Lord is coming to establish the kingdom and to reign. When?
In the book of Daniel when Nebuchadnezzar had his dream of this great image made out of several metals (the head of gold, chest of silver, stomach of brass, legs of iron and feet of iron and clay with ten toes). In his dream he was transfixed by this image until he saw a rock that was not cut with hands. It came and smote the great image in its feet so that the whole image crumbled. The rock began to grow into a mountain that finally covered the entire earth.
As the Lord gave to Daniel the interpretation for Nebuchadnezzar he said, “Before you went to sleep the other night and had this dream you were wondering what’s going to happen in the future. What’s going to happen to your kingdom and what’s going to happen to the world. So the God who rules over the world has given you a dream in which he has shown to you the future kingdom that shall reign over the earth. You are the head of gold in that God has given to you a marvelous and a mighty kingdom and you reign over the world. But your kingdom will be supplanted by an inferior kingdom of silver, Medo-Persia, which in turn will be destroyed by the Grecian kingdom, stomach of brass, which in turn will be crushed by the iron legs, the Roman Empire but the final kingdom will be a federation made up of parts of the Roman Empire but also mixed with clay. So there will be ten kings who will join their powers together related to the Roman Empire and they will become a mighty kingdom. During the reign of these ten kings that the Lord of heaven, the rock not cut with hands, will smote the image in its feet so the whole image crumbles. In the days of the ten kings shall the Lord of heaven come and establish his kingdom that shall never end.
Right now there’s an awful lot of talk about December thirty-first of nineteen ninety-two when the walls and the borders that have separated the nations of Europe, both of the European community, will be taken down and the European kingdom will become a reality, the United States of Europe, as these nations have joined themselves together. Now three of the nations are quite small and they are called Benelux (Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg) so they really comprise one nation thus with them as one you have a ten-nation confederacy.
The interesting thing is that with all that you read today and in the September eighteenth issue of Time magazine, I suppose you know Time magazine, it has this interesting article on charging ahead. It’s all about this European community which will have the largest GNP and the largest market of any industrialized nation. It talks about how they are going to take over the whole economic world. That by the confederation of these nations it is going to create a powerful economic block that everything else will become secondary and subsidiary to it. It’s extremely interesting to the businesses of the United States of what’s going on. Already, I don’t know where you bank but who owns it? I used to bank at Great Western then it was bought by Lloyd then it was sold to Sanwa. Lloyd happens to be an English firm and Sanwa doesn’t sound very English to me. How many of the banks have been bought by foreign government?
The European community of nations are investing thirty-two billion dollars in buying industries of the United States this year. They’re taking over our major companies, our major corporations and our major banks. We are fast becoming a second or third rate economical power as our foreign trade balance is always in the deficit. Japan has become one of the major economic powers of the world. When Europe comes together in nineteen ninety-three it will even surpass Japan by quite a ways. In fact, they will surpass all of the Eastern Nations of Japan, China, India and the whole market over there. The largest market, three hundred and forty million people.
In this Time magazine the one thing that was quite fascinating is the very last paragraph and that’s the one I wanted to bring out to you. The President of the European community is named Walter Holstein, he’s a Jew. He’s the first President of the European Commission and this quotes him.

“Anybody who does not believe in miracles in European affairs is no realist. The reality is that Western Europe has finally found it’s feet and is once more marching ahead.”

An interesting choice of words. It’s found it’s feet but the stone will strike it in its feet and the whole image will crumble and from that stone it will grow into a mountain that covers the earth.
These psalms that we’ve been studying and looking at talk about rejoicing for the Lord reigns and he judges the world in righteousness. This is just around the corner. The stage is being set. The feet have already been planted and they’re starting to march. I love it.
I pray that God will make this a very special week for you. A week of greater understanding of the will and the service of God for your life. That you might follow after the Lord and the things of the spirit. That he’ll protect and shield you from those influences of the world that is so destructive and so prevalent that may the Lord just put a shield around you. May you walk in holiness and in purity and in righteousness before Him. May your life be committed completely unto Him. May the love of Christ just dwell in your hearts richly that you experience His love and power working in and through your lives, in Jesus name.

Edited & Highlighted from “The Word For Today” Transcription, Pastor Chuck Smith, Tape #7197
PAGE 2

EMBED MS_ClipArt_Gallery.2