09/15/2021 – “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” – Dr. Charles L. King – June 15, 1958
I wanted to share this old sermon that we had hard copy in a 3 ring binder; it’s almost as old as I am. This is towards the end of Dr. King’s multi decade tenure as pastor of 1st Presbyterian Church in Houston Texas. Much as I would like to share all 3 pages, it is better to show portions than not at all. If you would like me to get you the full text, please email me at semikkah7@protonmail.com.
“Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?” Isaiah 40:12
“Your minister has learned from long experience that when a song or a poem or a verse of scripture keeps pestering his mind that the best thing for him to do is to preach a sermon on the idea that is troubling his mind. The idea usually vanishes after the preaching of the sermon.
The assertion that He’s got the whole world in his hands has a firm foundation in the teachings both of the Old and New Testaments. Let us assure our minds and hearts that this is true. The verse preceding our text declares, “He shall gather the lambs with his arms and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are young.” If this is true, then He must have the little tiny baby in his hands. …… (other scriptural verses not shown here…)
It is time we were asking what this truth that the whole world is in his hands means to us today. In the first place it means that each and every world threatening situation is in his hands. The men of the Kremlin and all the members of their Communistic party are in his hands. It matters not that they are atheists. Cyrus of old was a pagan, but he was in the hands of God, and God used him in carrying out his eternal purposes. ….
Because all the threatening world situations are in his hand does not mean that each and every one is going to turn to our advantage. Israel of old was in God’s hand, but that did not mean that Israel escaped the wrath of God for their sins. God used Assyria in punishing Israel. God have mercy upon us and turn us before being forced to use another Assyria in punishing us for his sins.
Let us leave the church this morning feeling that since we as a nation have always been and are in God’s hand, nothing can happen to our nation. We should rather go home with a prayer that the people of this country will be aroused immediately to see that corruption in public life is undermining the foundation of this country. Are we approaching the day when corruption in public office will be accepted as an inevitable fact?
Let us go home praying that the people of this country will be aroused to a realization of the fact that we have made a god out of their high standard of living. Did you ever stop to think as to how many of our national policies and international policies are influenced by our worship of this false god of a high standard of living?…..
The is something else in our society today that is troubling a great many thoughtful pople and that is the obsession with sex. People from other lands visiting our country are overwhelmed by this obsession on the part of the people of these United States. This obsession manifests itself in immoralities that we had rather not deal with in a sermon.
Prophecies concerning the end of the Christian Church adorn the writing of men throughout the nineteen centuries of the Church’s existence. But the Church is still here. Its membership rolls mount every year. Its gifts to spreading the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth mount every year. More people are attending the services of the Church than ever before in its history. We are told that in England and Scotland, where the percentage of church attendance was so distressingly low, there has been a definite improvement. (* Jimmy note below)
If all these things are true, they are true because He’s got the Church in his hand. You and I can afford to invest our energies, prayers and means in the Church because: “Unshaken as eternal hands, Immovable she stands, A mountain that shall fill the earth, A house not made by hands.”
The truth set forth in the title of our song means finally as the song declares, that He has you and me in hands. He has us in his hands in life, in death, in eternity.
Being in the hands of Almighty God does not mean that no bodily ill can befall us that He cannot turn to our good. It means that when ills do befall us, they befall us while we are still in his hands.
It was this faith on the part of Martin Lutehr that enabled him to defy Popes and Councils and preach the Word of God as the Spirit taught him. A cardinal sent to bring Luther back to the Roman Catholic Church said to him, “The Pope’s little finger is stronger than all Germany. Do you expect your princes to take up arms to defend you, you, a wretched worm like you? I tell you no; and where will you be then?” Luther’s reply was simple, “Where I am now , in the hands of Almighty God.”
In the hands of God in life. In the hands of Almighty God in death. In the hands of Almighty God in eternity. What more could we ask for? What more could we desire?
“I know not where his islands lift / Their fronded palms in air / I only know I cannot drift / Beyond His love and care.”
- * Jimmy note – And yes, the membership rolls here in the U.S.A. have gone done in percentage terms since 1958. But Africa continues to proliferate, along with China. Iran is the fastest growing church in the world. Even though it started from near zero a few years ago, they disciple to convert instead of the other way around, and they are “on fire for the Lord.”
It is not about just numbers on the rolls. Years ago, a cousin of mine and I could not come up with a single fellow high school classmate of 50 years ago between us that showed any significant signs “of being on fire for the Lord.” And today! Today, I run into young people all over the place “that are clearly on fire.” His church, the remnant will never ever be defeated!
Soli Deo Gloria!
Love,
Jimmy