2. Claude Ramsey | Why Calvinism Matters | Open Air Theology Conference 2024

God’s Holiness, Human Weakness, and the Aim of the Conference

Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Lord, as we come before your throne this morning, Lord, I come with a grateful heart, a grateful mind, aware, God, of who you are, and Lord, it is with fear and with awe, with wonder, I come before you this morning.

Lord, I come taking hold of the promise and the truth of your word, trusting and having believed savingly in your finished work on the cross. I come, O God, boldly into your throne of grace, and Lord, this won't be the last time that I ask this.

God, I'll ask it for every time that these men stand throughout the remainder of this conference. Lord, I pray, God, today that your name would be lifted high, that you would be exalted, that you would be magnified.

Lord, that the saints of God would be encouraged, and dear God, that the lost would hear the gospel and be saved. O God, help us, everyone, not to just take for granted nor to assume that just because we're at a conference like this that everybody's saved, but God, help us.

Help us as we look to you and we seek you in the word, dear God, and as you are lifted up and magnified, dear God, our prayer is this, that all men would be drawn unto you. The lost would be drawn unto you savingly, and that the saved would be drawn unto you lovingly, solely because of what you have done and what you have accomplished.

We give you honor, glory, and praise, God, for all things that are done in this place, for it is in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. We will be looking at several passages of scripture. I am a weak man. I'm not able to speak and to teach, nor do I have the knowledge that these men have.

Andrew, I'm so thankful for your knowledge and your ability to articulate like you do. And these other men, it's such a blessing just to be counted as friends with these men. But I echo the words of the Apostle Paul, for unto me, who am the least, less than least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles, that I should preach among men, women, boys, and girls, the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ.

And that is our aim and that is our goal today. I am by nature inclined to expository preaching, however at conferences I understand and know that there are topics. So there will be much scripture that we will be reading and much scripture that we will be quoting.

Why Calvinism Matters as a Biblical System

We will begin this morning in Psalm 78. Scripture says this, this is by the way the word of the living God. Give ear, O my people, to my teaching. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable.

I will utter dark sayings of old, things that we have heard and things that we have known that our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, but tell them to the coming generation.

This is what we will tell the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might and wonders that he has done. For he has established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them.

That her children, yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God, and so that they should not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments. And that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and a rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God.

I've been assigned the topic to speak on why Calvinism matters. This particular passage 1, being one of many today that we're going to be just quoting and you're hearing and reading, and I encourage you to study out these passages, to meditate on these passages of Scripture.

Because what we see in this text is why what God has said is important. It is important for us to teach God who God is. The power, the might, the majesty, the honor and the glory of God is important for us, not only to teach this to one another, but to teach this to our children.

And for our children, to teach our children's children. Calvinism, as we call it, is not to be as it has already been mentioned, and boy, Andrew could not have been more correct. Going first, you're right folks, get to steal a lot of what you say.

But Calvinism, as we call it, is not attributed to Calvin the man, nor by consequence to Augustine, from which Calvin learned. But rather today, our aim, our focus, our worship and our praise should go solely to the triune God of glory.

Oh sovereign God, oh matchless king, the saints adore, the angels sing and fall before the throne of grace. For to you belongs the highest praise. Praise the Father, praise the Son, praise the Spirit, three in one.

Clothed in power and in grace, the name above all other names. Our hope today is to lay before you a compelling case that demonstrates both, and I hope that we get this, both intellectually and experientially that God, above all, deserves worship, honor and glory.

Calvin, Spurgeon, and the Doctrines of Grace

So to briefly speak on our topic title, Why Calvinism Matters, I'd like to begin by reading from the Christian History Institute, article number 307. These are the words we read there. Probably no book in the history of the Protestant churches has been more influential than Calvin's institutes.

It is a systematic explanation of the whole of the Christian faith as Calvin understood it, and an attempt to unpack everything God has revealed to us about himself and about ourselves in the scriptures.

The institutes are divided into four books. Book 1 covers what we know of God, our Creator, through his creation and through the Bible. So we have natural revelation and special revelation. Book 2 covers what we know of Christ, our Redeemer, and of our sin and of our salvation.

Book 3 covers our receipt of that salvation through justification by faith and predestination. Book 4 covers the outward vehicles of that salvation, the church and its sacraments. That being said, even though it should go without having to be said, I am going to go ahead and say this, so that there are no misconceptions today.

We do not hold Calvin to be a super saint, nor do we hold his systematic to be superior to all others. Let's be straight today. Calvin was a man just like you and I, a man who was wrought with faults and failures.

He himself was a sinner, saved by the amazing grace of God. Certainly, yes, he was brilliant. Yes, he was well-spoken. And yes, he knew his theological stuff. And based on what Andrews told us, yes, he did not speak English.

But we are here this weekend not to worship Calvin nor his system of theology. We are here today as men and women and children, men, women, and children who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God, who hopefully, hopefully we are able to be mature and sober-minded enough to understand that Calvinism is a beneficial theological systematic and that it is able to aid us as believers just the same as other biblically sound and theologically accurate resources from throughout church history.

So two reasons why Calvinism matters today. Calvinism matters because, one, it is through this systematic that we are pointed to the Scriptures. And by being pointed to the Scriptures in them, we learn and we understand the high, holy, and the exalted state of Almighty God.

Reason number two, Calvinism matters because it is through this systematic that we are pointed to the Scriptures. You say, do you realize you just repeated yourself?

Absolutely.

There is no other place that we should look to see who God is or how we can know who God is outside of the inspired Word of the living God. And so we are pointed through this systematic not only to understand who God is, but we are pointed to the Scriptures so that we learn the serious and the heinous nature of sin and the lowly condition of us as mankind.

I can sum up Calvinism in a simple phrase today and it is this. Up, up, up with God and down, down, down with man. Salvation, Spurgeon said this, salvation is of the Lord. Jonah 2 .9 actually states that.

Spurgeon said this in his biography. He said this is just an epitome of Calvinism. It is the sum and the substance of it. If anyone should ask me what I mean by Calvinist, I should reply this. Spurgeon said he is one who says salvation is of the Lord.

I cannot find in Scripture any other doctrine than this. It is the essence of the Bible. The psalmist said he only, speaking of God, he only is my rock and he only is my salvation. Tell me anything contrary to this truth and it will be a heresy.

Tell me a heresy and I shall find its essence here that it has departed from this great, from this fundamental, this rock truth that God is our rock and that God is our salvation. Now Spurgeon, as many Calvinists do, had his own opinions and had his own thoughts.

He said this, I have my own private opinion that there is no such thing as preaching Christ and Him crucified unless we preach what nowadays is called Calvinism. We are talking about the 1800s when this was said.

It is a nickname, Spurgeon said, it is a nickname to call it Calvinism. Calvinism is the Gospel and nothing else. I do not believe we can preach the Gospel if we do not preach justification by faith without works.

I do not believe that we preach the Gospel if we preach anything other than the sovereignty of God in His dispensation of grace. Nor unless we exalt the electing, unchangeable, eternal, immutable, conquering love of Jehovah.

Nor do I think, Spurgeon said, nor do I think we can preach the Gospel unless we base it upon the special and the particular redemption of His elect and His chosen people which Christ wrought out Himself upon the cross.

Nor can I, Spurgeon closed his statement and said this, nor can I comprehend the Gospel which lets saints fall away after they are called and suffers the children of God to be burned in the fires of damnation after having once believed in Jesus.

Spurgeon said, such a Gospel I abhor. And my response to Spurgeon there, if I would have been in the audience, would have been, Amen! Right there. As we heard from Dr. Frost and Jeremiah Nortier last night, we should be on guard for any group that attempts to downplay and to minimize the foundational doctrines of the faith.

When I say we, we, I'm talking about we, the blood-bought church of the living God being acutely and keenly aware of any friends or foes who would try to speak against the doctrines of grace. The doctrines of grace begin with the doctrine of God for we must start our theology with God.

The doctrines of grace begin with the doctrine of God and the doctrines of grace not only begin with the doctrine of God which is what we'll be examining as best we can in our allotted time this morning, but the doctrine of total depravity.

The doctrine of total depravity is an essential doctrine of the faith. It is being denied and it is being rejected by some in the church world which is a slippery slope that leads to the damnable view that says that man isn't born in sin, but that he basically grows into sin.

Some may say, certainly this is not overtly taught, but I would say with my own ears two days ago I heard this very downgrade being put in and posted up on the interwebs. The Church Split podcast overtly and quite proudly denied and rejected the doctrine of original sin.

Next, the doctrine of unconditional election stands clear and it stands plain. The doctrine of limited atonement can be easily simplified and understood if folks would just listen. The irresistible call is yet another of the doctrines that when examined by the text is demonstrably sound.

And last of all, the perseverance of the saints, it simply sets forth the plain truth of Romans 8. In Romans chapter 8 and verse 28 we read,. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good.

For those who are called according to His purpose, for those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. Why? In order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers.

And those whom He predestined, these He also called. And these whom He called, these He justified. And those whom He justified, He also glorified. And the Apostle Paul retorts, What shall we say then to these things?

If God be for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? For who, who shall bring anything, any charge against God's elect?

For it is God who justifies. Who is He to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, hallelujah for what we heard last night, it is He who was raised. And He who was at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or persecution, or distress, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, peril, or sword? For as it is written, For your sake we are being killed all day long, we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

But no, Paul says, No, but in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure, I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, and in case I forgot anything, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of our God who is in Christ Jesus.

I am thankful today, church, and I say church lovingly, I am thankful today that God is so sovereign. I am thankful today that God is so sovereign and that His gospel is still so efficacious and able to save the lost that despite the asinine behavior of many Calvinists, of many Provisionists, and of many Armenians, that He is still able to save the lost.

It does not matter. There will be no thwarting the power of the Word of God. For the Word of God is not bound. And so our aim this morning is simply this. We hope to preach to you in such a way today that you are broken by the hammer of the Word of God.

We hope to preach to you in such a way today that you are pierced through by the sword of the Spirit. And alas, in the end, our expectation today is this simply, that if you're lost, you would be saved today by understanding, by knowing, by hearing of the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is simple.

It is this that Christ died for our sins. And yes, we are everyone, sinners, through and through. But Christ died for our sins. He was buried, and according to the Scriptures, on the third day He arose from the dead.

So our hope is that the Word of God today would so penetrate your heart and your mind that you are regenerated, that you are born again, that you might leave having gone to the Why Calvinism conference.

All jacked up on why Calvin's right and everybody else is wrong. You might be able to leave this place and say, I went to hear about Calvin, but I heard Jesus Christ. And I will not be the same. May today be that day of salvation for you.

May today be that day where you are born again, where you have not been asked to let John Calvin come into your heart. And by the way, Jesus doesn't ask to come into your heart. Brothers and sisters, our hope is that the lost would be saved and that you, as saved folks today, that you would be set on fire for God.

And that you would be compelled to burn for Christ today. For our God, the Scriptures tell us this, our God is a consuming fire. He is a consuming fire. A close friend of mine made this statement some time back and I have so cherished this.

It's actually one of the deacons at our church, but he made this statement and it's so stuck with me. He said, we will never be closer to heaven on earth. And by the way, let me put a parenthetical in here.

We will never be closer to heaven on earth. Of course, it's understood this to mean this side of the eternal state. But we'll never be closer to heaven on earth than when we are gathered together with the saints to worship our Lord.

Never will we be closer to heaven on earth. The book of Hebrews chapter 12 verse 22 states this, but you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven.

And you've come to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect. And you have come to Jesus, who by the way is the mediator of the new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

See that you do not refuse him who is speaking today. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. For at that time, the scripture states, his voice shook the earth.

But now, yet once more he has said, once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens. And this phrase signifying, this phrase being stated, this phrase yet once more indicates the removal of things that are shaken, that is things that have been made in order that, so that, in order that these things, the things that cannot be shaken may remain.

Therefore, let us, let us be grateful. Let us be grateful for what? For receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. That is what the word of God, therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken.

And thus, as a result of this, let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and with awe for our God, as we stated, is a consuming fire. Brothers and sisters, today we have met to worship the Lord our God.

The Throne of God in Isaiah 6 and Psalm 73

Isaiah chapter 6 verse 1, if you would turn there as well. Isaiah chapter 6 verse 1. And as you're turning there, I'll share another quote by Spurgeon. But it is God upon the throne that we love to preach.

Which is why we chose this as our primary text today. It is God upon the throne that we love to preach. It is God upon His throne in whom we trust. It is God upon His throne of whom we have been singing this morning.

And it is God upon His throne of whom we shall speak today. Isaiah chapter 6. This is the word of the living God. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up.

And the train of His robe filled the temple. And above Him stood the seraphim, each had six wings. With two, He covered His face. With two, He covered His feet. And with two, He flew. And one called to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.

The whole earth is full of His glory. And the scripture states,. And the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of Him who called. And the house was filled with smoke. And I said, Woe is me, for I am undone.

I am lost. I am a man of unclean lips. And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.

Why?

He said, Because my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. The King, Yahweh of hosts. Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.

And he touched my mouth and he said, Behold, this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away and your sin is atoned for. It is important that we understand the context for a passage, if we're going to look at it and read it and preach on it.

King Uzziah had reigned for 52 years. During the greater part of that reign, his people had been brilliantly prosperous. They had been victorious in war. He was also successful in the arts of peaceful industry.

The later years of his life, however, were clouded. But on the whole, the reign had been a great time of well-being. His son and his successor was a man of 25 years old. And when he came to the throne, ominous war clouds were gathering in the north and threatenings to drift to Judah.

This is what happened when his son comes to power. But it's no wonder here that the prophet Isaiah, like other thoughtful patriots, was asking himself what was to come in these anxious days when the helm was in new hands, which perhaps, Alexander McLaren put it this way, which perhaps were not strong enough to hold the helm.

And like a wise man, Isaiah, he took his thoughts into the sanctuary of God. And it was there, in the sanctuary of God, that he began to see clearly. And it was there that he began to understand. Oh, we have this same example.

Very quickly, if you turn back to Psalm 73. Psalm 73. We read these words. A Psalm of Asaph. Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But he says, But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped.

For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For they had no pangs until death, their bodies are fat and sleek, they are not in trouble as others are, and they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.

Therefore, pride is their necklace. Violence covers them as a garment. Their eyes swell out through fatness. Their hearts overflow with follies. They scoff and speak with malice. Loftily, they threaten opposition or oppression.

They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongue struts through the earth. Therefore, his people turn back to find them and find no fault in them. And they say, How can God know? Remember, today we are talking about a God who is sovereign.

A God who is omniscient. A God who is omnipresent. A God who is omnipotent. And they have the audacity to say, How can God know? And is their knowledge in the Most High? Behold, the psalmist makes this declaration, Behold, these are the wicked.

They are always at ease. They increase in riches. All in vain, he said, have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. So he begins to feel sorry for himself. And he says, This was all a waste of time.

For all the day long I've been stricken and I've been rebuked every morning. And he said, If I had said thus, I will speak thus, then I would have betrayed the generation of your children. But, when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task.

And my friends, it will wear you out. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we shouldn't strive to know God better in His Word, but it will wear you out and it will drive you insane if you think you can figure God out.

Going on, he said this,. But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task until I went into the Sanctuary of God. He went into the Sanctuary of God. This is where Isaiah goes.

Into the Sanctuary of God. But the psalmist said there in Psalm 73, When I went into the Sanctuary of God, then I discerned therein. Then I understood. For he said, Truly, truly God, His response and His praise to God is this, Truly, you set them in slippery places.

Truly, you make them fall to ruin. And how they are destroyed in a moment, utterly swept away by terrors. And like a dream, when one awakes, O Lord, you rouse yourself. You despise them as phantoms. And when my soul was embittered, when my heart was pricked, I was brutish and I was ignorant.

I was like a beast toward you.

Nevertheless,.

And here he comes to the great realization,. Nevertheless, I am continually with you. For you, O God, hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel. And afterward, you will receive me to glory.

Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. For my flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart. And God is the portion of my heart forever.

So we see this realized by the psalmist. And here we see this vision that we have left for us here in the Word of God. And I think, oh my goodness gracious, how wonderful it is to know that there have been those saints who have reasonably and by normal course of events and circumstances begin to wonder, is God real?

Is God the way?

Is Jesus the way, the truth, and the life? And instead of trying to deconstruct their faith, they just go to the place where they get before the throne of God. And God by His Holy Spirit is able with those groanings which cannot be uttered to demonstrate to them the reality of His salvation in their hearts and in their minds.

To let them understand and to know that He is real. There's a song we sing in the country church. Living below in this old sinful world,. Hardly a comfort can afford,. Striving alone to face temptation sore, Where could I go but to the Lord?

And Isaiah knew no other place that he could go but to go to the Lord. Alexander McLaren in his commentary said this,. It was in the year that King Uzziah died. It's a great deal more than simply a time indicator for us.

It's more than a date for chronological purposes. But what this does, what this passage teaches us, what this passage tells us is this. It tells us not only when the prophet went into the temple, but the why that he saw, the vision that he saw.

For the earthly king, King Uzziah, the earthly king had been laid in the grave. But what the prophet saw, what the prophet saw was that the true king of Israel was not dead. Nor as Uzziah, nor as young Jotham, but he saw the king, the Lord of hosts.

And the king, the Lord of hosts, was seated upon his throne. If the throne had been empty, he would not have seen the throne God in the heavens because he would have continued to look to the man. He would have continued to look to the successor.

But my friend, there is one Lord and there is one king above all lords and above all kings. There is one whom we as the church of Jesus Christ look to and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. For he sits enthroned today.

We tend to think about passages like this, Isaiah passage, and we arrogantly think that we certainly, certainly we've drained the last drop of rejoicing out of the bucket of salvation. Some men may have been intimidated when these singers quoted the first passage they read was Isaiah 6.

Some preachers might have felt bad. Some preachers might have been concerned. Well, they're stealing our thunder, friend. It's not our thunder to steal. And it's good for us to hear the word of God over and over and over.

We should not assume that the bucket of salvation has been drained dry. But what I would remind you today of, saints, is this, that the well is deep and that the water is everlasting. And so it is why with joy today we draw water from the wells of salvation.

Are you weak and heavy laden? Come to Jesus. Are you tired? Are you troubled? Are you weary? Are you worn? Cast your care upon the Lord today for he cares. By the way, not only does he care, but he is able to care for you.

He provides for you. So, moving on, what does the prophet say? Or what does the prophet see? Simple answer, God. Who is this God that he sees? It is not the gods of the nations. It is not the gods of the lands.

It is not the gods of the pagans. It is Yahweh. The eternal, self-existent God. Now, how do we, as men, describe God? To which I would ask another question. How does the finite describe the infinite?

All that we have is the Word of God to be able to describe God. John Owen put it like this,. If we maintain, then, the glory of God, let us speak in his own language or be forever silent. That is glorious in him which he ascribes unto himself.

Owen said,. Our inventions, though never so splendid in our own eyes, are unto him but an abomination. They are a striving to pull him down from his eternal excellency, to make him altogether like unto us, for God would never allow that the will of the creature be the measure of his honor.

Why should you love God? Why should you honor God? Why should you respect God? Not because myself or any of these other men of God who will stand before you, because we speak highly of God, but you should honor and glorify and worship God because he is worthy on his own merit without any commendations.

Going on.

It's important that we note, George Swinnick said this, George Swinnick wrote this concerning the person of God.

Swinnick said,.

God's being is an independent being. He is by himself as well as from and for himself. None ever in heaven or earth contributed the least to the maintenance or contributed to the continuance of his being.

Neither the creature's goodness nor their goods do him the least bit of good.

Why?

Because God is eternal. God, as we have it in the text, is holy, holy, holy. God is good. God is faithful. God is just. God is loving. God is merciful. God is immutable. God himself is almighty. John Norton, another of the old dead guys, said this, What are we to conceive by this?

He asked this question, What are we to conceive by this that God is almighty? In other words, what are we to think? His answer was this, we must think this, that God is almighty because God is almighty.

We are to conceive that God needs nothing. He doesn't need anything, that he can do everything which is neither wicked nor unequal, that he does whatsoever he pleases, and is one of whom, by whom, and for whom are all things.

So concerning God's own testimony of himself, in Isaiah chapter 45, verses 5 through 7, the prophet Isaiah gives us a transcript. By the way, context there for Isaiah. God is speaking to and of concerning King Cyrus, who, by the way, was not a good king.

He was not a godly king. But did God use Cyrus for his glory and for his honor? Absolutely, he did. And this is the word of the Lord in Isaiah chapter 45, I am the Lord, and there is no other. Beside me there is no God.

I equip you, he's speaking to Cyrus, I equip you, though you do not know me, that people may know from the rising of the sun and from the west, and that there is none beside me. Why? He said, because I am the Lord, and there is no other.

I form light and create darkness. I make well-being and I create calamity. I am the Lord who does all these things. In Daniel chapter 7, verses 9 through 10, the scripture states this,. As I looked, thrones were placed.

Again, I know it was quoted last night, read, alluded to, all of these things. But as I looked, the prophet Daniel said,. As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head was pure like wool.

His throne was fiery flames, its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued, the scripture says, and came from out before him. A thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him.

The court sat in judgment, and the books were opened. We read in Psalm chapter 47,. Clap your hands, O you people. Shout to God with loud songs of joy, for the Lord, the Most High, is to be feared, for he is a great king above all the earth.

He subdued people under us, and nations under our feet. He chose our heritage for us, the pride of Jacob, whom he loves. Selah, pause, think. For God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.

Sing praises to God. Sing praises. Sing praises to our king. Sing praises. For God is the king of all the earth. Sing praises with a psalm. Why? God reigns over the nations. God sits on his holy throne.

The princes of the people gather together as the people of God to Abraham, for the shields of the earth belong to God. Why? He is exalted. So where, where does Isaiah see God? He sees him seated on his throne.

A bit of history. Three dates I want to give you. The year 1066, the year 1377 through 1399, and the year 1625 through 1649. And you may be thinking to yourself, those seem like random dates. And I would be honest in telling you,.

They are random.

But they are intentional. In the year 1066, Harold II, the last of the Anglo-Saxon kings, reigned for less than a year, and he spent it fighting to retain power against the coordinated double invasion by Vikings in the north and Normans in the south.

He was victorious at Stanford Bridge in Yorkshire. Harold was defeated and killed at the Battle of Hastings. Richard II in 1377 through 1399. Like Edward II, Richard II was bored by government responsibility and he was addicted to pleasure and extravagance.

Overthrown in a military revolt led by Henry Bolingbroke, he became Henry IV. He was deposed and then secretly murdered in Pontefract Castle. King Charles I, 1625 through 1649. He was driven from London by revolution in 1642 and defeated in two successive civil wars.

Charles was put on trial by the radical leaders of the New Model Army and their supporters in a purged Rump Parliament. He was beheaded in a public execution in Whitehall after condemnation as a traitor to the English people.

Now you might be asking yourself right now, what's the point of the history lesson, preacher? To which I would respond, rhetorically of course, I'm glad that you asked. The point is this. Quite simply, the point is that the kings of the earth have all had their day.

And their day has come and their day has gone. Their kingdoms and their dominions have passed away and have long been forgotten by most because most of you had no idea who these people were. Their kingdoms, their dominions passed away.