Greetings, this is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a moment of truth where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. Today, to who belongs all the nations of the earth, or as the Bible calls him, the desire of the nations? In a tumultuous world where conflict exists over possession of the earth, for example, Islam asserts the earth belongs to Allah, communists and socialists claim it is the peoples through the state, and of course the plutocrats, who are presently attempting to seize it, assume that they are entitled, since it is theirs bought and paid for.

Who can we confidently say, however, as Bible-believing Christians, in reality does possess the earth and all that is in it? This is an important question since the answer will determine how we live in the future. That for which we labor, the form of government we fashion to live under, and those we choose to lead us. It will have ultimate consequences also, since the possessor of the earth is the one we end up worshiping. The Bible records for us this solemn expression of the consequence for choosing the wrong being to worship.

If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire, from Revelation chapter 20. Now, over the last few weeks, we have been examining the way things are in America. That is, we see secularism ruling our spiritual lives, statism tyrannizing our political lives, and socialism running our economic lives. With the way we've been comparing this with the way we were designed by our founding fathers. That is, we were designed to have Christ for our spiritual lives, the constitution for our political lives, and capitalism for our economic lives.

Yet, throughout this careful comparison, we have been insistent that the overarching point is that of Christ for all. Christ must be the center of our worship as a people. Christ must be at the heart of our constitution, and Christ must guide our capitalistic economy. If not, all is lost. And what I want to examine today in some detail is why Christ is central to all that we do as a nation.

He is the desire of the nations. That is, the one to whom all of our labors and our aspirations culminate. The Bible is insistent on this. And how can we maintain, though? How can we put Christ so centrally in our understanding?

Well, we establish this from the authority of the Word of God. Three points I want to make with you today. Number one, Christ is the desire of the nations because they are His by right of creation. The Bible documents that the Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity, made the heavens and the earth. Secondly, we also maintain that Christ is the desire of the nations because they are His by right of redemption.

Not only did He make and fashion the earth and the men who inhabit it, but also He redeemed them when they were lost. And then thirdly, I also want to assert for you, Christ is the desire of the nations because they are His by right of inheritance. The one follows upon the other. Since He redeemed it by His own blood, they are His by inheritance too. So let's take these one at a time.

Number one, Christ is the desire of the nations because it is His by right of creation. God made it. He owns it. He possesses it, therefore. The Bible documents, for example, that the Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity, made the heavens and the earth.

And since He made them, He owns them. As Paul notes in Romans chapter 9, has not the potter a right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use, from Romans chapter 9? Well, indeed, he does, of course. And Paul extols the preeminence of Christ owing to His making all things. He says of Christ through Him and for Him.

He is before all things. In Him, all things hold together. All things were created through Him and for Him. Just as the desire of a child is for his mother, for she has made him, so the desire of the nations is for their Maker, for He has made them. This is the sense of what the prophet Haggai declares when he says, Yet once in a little while, and I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land, and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations will come.

The church has traditionally seen this text as pointing to the coming of Christ, who is the maker and the shaper and the disposer of all nations. As Paul declares in Acts chapter 17, He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place. Unquote. Oh, He made from man every nation of mankind. This is why we can confidently, boldly, in great assurance call Jesus Christ the desire of all nations.

It is for Him for whom they long. When the human heart yearns for peace, they desire the one of all nations. It is the living Christ for whom the nations cry out when calling for justice. It is Jesus of Nazareth for whom the nations reach when they long for salvation and deliverance. But pastor, you may say, and I thought of this too, how can you say this categorically when it is so obvious that very few, if any, of the nations seem to desire Him at present.

In fact, we see evidence all around us that most of the nations now of the earth actually seem to hate Christ and to persecute His followers. And to all of this, I must acknowledge, yes, yes, alas, this is the condition of the human heart at present, isn't it? It is the human condition. But this brings me to my second point, and that is number two, Christ is the desire of the nations because they are His by right of redemption. They are lost, they are fallen, but they are redeemed back now.

Not only did Christ make and fashion the earth and the men who inhabit it, but Christ also redeemed them when they were lost. Herein lies the key as to why the nations do not yet acknowledge Christ as their desire and recognize Him as their King. That is, the nations are lost and fallen and estranged from Christ and actually hate Him at this present moment. In fact, the Bible tells us, the Psalms tell us, the Psalm number two says, why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed saying, let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us, unquote. So the Bible, this Psalm in particular, speaks directly of Christ. From the very earliest account of mankind, we know that the nations do exactly this, do they not? They rage, they plot, they set themselves, and that Hebrew word means to obstinately block the way. They obstinately block the way against Christ and against the Father and His anointed, that is, the Christ.

So when humanity was one nation after the flood, for example, at the Tower of Babel, there was a period where all of humanity was one nation. Well, they conspired against God, did they not? They said, come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth, unquote, from Genesis chapter 11, when mankind was one nation.

This was in direct contravention, however, of the dominion mandate at creation, when God blessed them and God said to them, that is to Adam and Eve, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. So the dominion mandate then was to go out, be fruitful, disperse over the face of the earth and fill it.

But instead, at the Tower of Babel, they concentrated themselves into a city and built vertically, that is, to reach into heaven and unseat God, instead of building horizontally, that is, to spread abroad in the dominion God had granted them, that is, in the earth. So make no mistake about this, dear listener. God was not the desire of the one nation of man at the Tower of Babel, because they were true children of their first parents, Adam and Eve. They hated this God. They raged, they plotted, they set themselves and took counsel against God to disobey Him.

Because of this, God made many nations. That's why we have so many nations and so many tongues and languages, because God, in His punishment, made many nations of the one family of man at this place called Babel by forcing them to go hither and yon over the earth. Genesis chapter 11 again, therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth, and from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth. So then, ever since, the nations have hated God. They have not welcomed Christ as the desire of all the nations, even though He is, though they know it not.

The one nation of mankind was smashed and dispersed into all the earth, isolated by having its language confused, that is, broken up into many languages, one unintelligible to the other, versus this one universal language. So, this is a part of the miracle of the gospel of Christ, and the beauty of the unity of His church, parenthetically, in that what happened at the Tower of Babel is reversed now in Christ and His church.

We see in Revelation, for example, they sang a new song, the saints sang, worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priest to our God, and they shall reign on the earth, unquote, from the book of Revelation. But the trend among the nations has consistently been opposite to this, and to see Christ, then, as the despised of all nations, rather than the desire of all nations. This is so true, is it not?

Dear listener, Egypt, for example, found Him to be the despised of the nations, even though shown to be utterly superior to all of their gods by means of the ten plagues, right? The Moabites and the Amalekites found Him to be the despised of the nations, as Israel passed through the wilderness. All of the subsequent nations of the earth ended up treating the Christ, Israel, my son, that is, the type of Christ, Israel, my son, began to treat Him as the despised rather than the desire of the nations. We see this throughout the Bible with Assyria and Babylon and Rome, to name but three of the most egregious of these nations.

All through history, with some notable exceptions, the United States of America being one, this is the story of mankind as He has gathered Himself into nations. And as I make clear in other places, all nations have a God. All nations have a God or gods, including the supposed atheistic nations of communism. We all live simultaneously in a physical and spiritual realm as individuals, as families, as regions and states, and as nations. There is a spiritual community in a nation, as well as a culture and a society.

Every nation has a spiritual community. It is part of what makes us human. So, unless a nation is conscientiously, consciously, overtly, and explicitly Christian in its religious faith, it will revert to its default setting that it had at the fall. That is, it will worship one of the many faces of the serpent, that is, the devil. But does this make those nations, that is, the nations we see arrayed before us in the world today, does it make them any less the possession of the Christ, the desire of the nations?

And to this, we must give an emphatic note. They are still His, even though they do not recognize Him. In fact, God at every juncture of history reminds us that the nations of the earth belong to His Christ. Once again, from chapter 2, from Psalm number 2, He says, I will tell of the decree. The Lord said to me, You are my son.

Today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. They are His, they are Christ's, because the Father made them, as we have observed, but also because He redeemed them. He bought them back.

He saved them. Paul talks about this redemption as the obedience of faith, and it is required of a nation, the obedience of faith to this redemption. It acknowledges Christ. Paul says in Romans chapter 1, we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of His name among all the nations, unquote, from the apostle Paul. And then later in Romans, Paul also speaks in this same fashion.

He speaks of the Christ having been disclosed, Christ in His gospel having been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations according to the command of the eternal God to bring about the obedience of faith. Oh, dear listener, one of the most beautiful passages in the Bible talks of the profound impact of the gospel upon the nations in the age to come when the labors of Christ will finally bring about genuine peace that is so elusive today, isn't it, as we look around a tumultuous world.

And we see in Revelation chapter 2, in the new Jerusalem, in that place of bliss, we see on either side of the river, that is the river of life in Revelation 22, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its 12 kinds of fruit yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the trees were for the healing of the nations, unquote. There will be a healing of the nations, brothers and sisters, but it will not be by man's devices. It will not be by the United Nations. No, it will not be by Islam.

It will not be by any other religion. It will be by Christ and His gospel. The leaves of the tree of life, that is the new Jerusalem of Christ, will be for the healing of the nations. Nations will not be healed until then. Because Christ and His gospel is the only way that these things will transpire.

He is truly the desire of the nations, including our nation. He should be the desire of the United States of America, because only through Christ will the healing of the nations come. But sadly, it is true that as we speak, most nations of the world do not know that He is their desire. But does that mean that they will never know Him as such? No, dear listener.

That means that it will transpire, but not in the near future. That brings me to point number three. Christ is the desire of the nations, because they are His by right of inheritance. They are His. The nations are Christ's by right of inheritance.

Christ has ownership of the nations, because His Father has bequeathed them to Him. There is no escape from this reality, dear listener. The sooner the nations realize this, the sooner their desire will be satisfied. We have already observed how the nations are Christ's inheritance. That is a thing to come to Him by a will of the Father.

For example, Psalm number two says, I will tell of the decree. The Lord said to me, you are my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. The book of Revelation then becomes less of a mystery to us when we realize that it is in large part, the book of Revelation, the story of Christ claiming in conquest the nations of the earth as His inheritance, and this inheritance ensconced in a will and testament.

For example, when John sees the Father seated on the throne with a fulsome scroll sealed with seven seals, John weeps because apparently there is no one worthy to open it and claim its contents. Oh, something profoundly significant for heaven and earth is contained therein such that it brings John deep sorrow to think that it might go unclaimed. But many have pondered the nature of that scroll. But it is in reality quite simple. Ancient last wills and testaments.

This is what this was, an ancient last will and testament. These are all, especially for those with great lands and great holdings. These were composed in detail on a scroll. Ergo, both sides are full. And then that scroll was read and attested to by reliable witnesses who then closed the document and sealed it with their own individual seal.

Seven witnesses were customary for these last wills and testaments. So what we have before us in Revelation, in the seven sealed scroll, is a last will and testament of the Father. And then at the death of the testator, that is the one whose inheritance it was to give, only one person was authorized to break the seals and open the scroll, and that is the son by inheritance. And ideally it would be this son who would do this in the presence of the witnesses who sealed the document in the first place, breaking the seven seals. It would then be read and acted upon.

So what you see in the book of Revelation is Christ laying claim to the nations, a thing he is doing now, I submit to you, even as we speak, not someday in the future as dispensationalists say, no, but Christ is doing this now. Heaven sings a new song now, and they sang a new song, the Bible says, saying, worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you are slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. Christ is now making the nations his own. Christ is about that business throughout history, dear listener.

Gradually, over the millennia, those nations will come to see that he is their desire, that Christ is the desire of the nations of their nation. He is the desire of the United States of America, I submit to you, dear listener, though we are fast losing that realization. We are fast sinking into a sea of historical forgetfulness. But Christ, nevertheless, is the desire of our nation too. Can you not see this happening?

The gospel began in a dusty, remote corner of the Roman Empire that is Palestine, far from the grandeur of the center of the universe that is Rome. And the gospel spread from 12 weak, fallible apostles to now. Today, look about you. The gospel has now reached the furthest corners of the earth. What continent, what island, what nation has not yet heard the gospel and does not have at least a church of believers within it?

In fact, Revelation 14, verse 6 is being fulfilled. Revelation 14, 6 says, Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people, unquote. What John saw as future, this gospel going to every nation, we now see as fulfilled. What remains now is for the nations to acknowledge this Christ as their desire. How stubborn, how obstinate we are as nations, are we not?

Even the one founded as an explicitly Christian nation, that is the United States of America. What's happened to us, dear listener? It is inevitable that all nations will recognize and worship Christ. Why have we forfeited that realization and that lead over the other nations that we had by denying him now in a supposed secular society? Really not secular at all, really, but pagan, worshiping the many-faced serpent.

Oh, dear listener, make no mistake. He will conquer all nations and make them his inheritance. He will smash them with a rod of iron, like a potter's vessel, as the Bible says. Well, the only question is, will we do this willingly and gladly, or will we have to be broken with a rod of iron, like a potter's vessel? The Bible predicts and indeed foresees in Revelation chapter 15. Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name?

For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed. Oh, dear listener, did you hear that? The Bible says that all nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed. He is indeed the desire of the nations.

The nations will fear, because those who do not, he will break in pieces with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Oh, dear listener, as you consider what we teach here, that we desperately need to return to Christ and constitution and capitalism instead of secularism and statism and socialism, go forward in the certainty that the Christ of the Bible is indeed the one for whom the nations search when they yearn for peace. Christ is the one they utterly require when they cry in righteousness for justice. And Christ is the only one who can save and deliver when the nations desperately plead for salvation.

He, Jesus Christ, crucified, raised, ascended now to heaven to claim his inheritance, Christ is the one the nations long for, the desire of the nations. Go and tell those nations this. Go and proclaim it to the nations. Reveal it to the nations, the unknown God, their unknown God. This has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

We meet for holy worship at 10 a.m. on Sunday at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. You can call us at 523-0196. We encourage you to come and visit us. Once again, Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. And we meet for holy worship.

Join us. Visit us on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard.