Mark that spot in your Bible,
because when I come back up to preach, we'll be looking at one
of these verses. Look with me at verse 11. They
that are delivered from the noise of archers in the place of drawing
water. This is the place of drawing
water. This is the place where the Lord delivers his people
from the fiery darts of the devil, which is what causes our circumstances
to be so much of a problem, isn't it? I pray the Lord to do that
for us today. There shall they rehearse the
righteous acts of the Lord, even the righteous acts toward the
inhabitants of his villages in Israel. Each one of the Lord's
congregations spread out all over the world are his villages. Then shall the people of the
Lord go down to the gates. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
gate. we're able to find our hope in
him and our comfort in his salvation and the hope of our being with
him through those gates of glory. Verse 12, awake, awake, Deborah,
awake, awake, utter, I'm sorry, utter a song, arise, Barak, and
lead thy captivity captive, thou son of Obinem. You know, we are prone to slumber,
aren't we? We can be very lethargic when
it comes to spiritual things. I pray the Spirit of God will
speak effectually to our hearts and say to us, awake, awake,
for your salvation is nearer now than it was before. Let's
stand together. Tom, you come, please, and the
hymn on the back of your bulletin. ? Rejoice, my soul, rejoice ? ?
The shepherd found his sheep ? ? Give thanks and praise to
him alone ? ? His found ones he will keep ? ? I am the good
shepherd ? Christ Jesus has declared ? He gave his life to save his
sheep ? His sheep from wrath are spared ? I was a wandering
sheep The shepherd sought me out. He brought his sheep into
his fold. His grace I cannot doubt. A sheep I am, I know, Dirty and
weak and dumb, But if the Lord my shepherd is, He will his sheep
bring home. Rejoice, my soul, rejoice! The shepherd found his sheep. Give thanks and praise to him
alone. His found ones he will keep. Please be seated. Good morning. Greg's prayer to
awake is really what I'm about to read in Isaiah 55. Awake,
come and eat, everyone that thirsteth. Ho, everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters. And he that hath no money, come
ye, buy and eat. Yea, come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for
that which is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfieth
not? Hearken diligently unto me, and
eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself
in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto
me. Here, and your soul shall live.
And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure
mercies of David. Lord God, we thank you that you've
brought us here safely, that we can hear your gospel once
again. And we ask that you unstop our
ears, Lord, and cause us to see that everything we've been doing
will not satisfy unless you're in it, Lord, unless you give
it, unless it's your son, Jesus Christ. We ask this in his name,
Lord, please have mercy on us and come now. Let's stand together again. We'll
sing hymn number 19 in the Spiral Gospel Hymns hymn book, number
19. ? Sovereign ruler, Lord of all
? ? Prostrate at your feet I fall ? ? You are holy, wise, and just
? ? I'm a creature of the dust ? ? All things move at your command
? ? Governed by your mighty hand ? ? Heaven, earth, and hell I
see ? ? Fulfill all your wise decree ? ? There's a man, resist
his lord ? ? Stand against the sovereign God ? ? I will bow
before your throne ? ? Seeking grace in Christ your Son ? ?
Through his blood and righteousness ? ? Lord, I plead with you for
grace ? ? If you will, you can, I know ? ? Grace and mercy to
me show ? ? Will you, Lord, my soul forgive ? ? Grant this sinner
grace to live ? ? I've no other hope but this ? ? Jesus' blood
and righteousness ? ? Now I'm conquered by your grace ? ? In
the dust I hide my face ? ? Give me Christ or else I die ? ? I
upon your grace rely ? ? All for mercy now I plead ? Grant
me, Lord, the grace I need ? Turn, O turn to me and say ? All your
sins are washed away ? In my Son your debt is paid ? He bore
you the ransom made Please be seated. The debt is paid. The ransom
has been made. What hope? All of that was accomplished
in the life, the death, the resurrection, and the ascension of the Lord
Jesus Christ. who saved his people, made himself
an offering to his heavenly father, and was accepted on behalf of
his people. All those for whom he lived and
died, God Almighty sees in him. And all those for whom he lived
and died see themselves in need of him. They see themselves as
having no righteousness whatsoever in and of themselves and completely
dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ. You have your Bibles
open with me to Judges chapter five. We've been in this chapter
for a few weeks now. Deborah is leading the children
of Israel in a song of rejoicing over the deliverance that God
has given them over Jabin and Sisera. And it is a picture of
the victory that the Lord Jesus Christ has gotten for his people
over the destruction of Satan and the putting away of sin. And here she tells us in verse
10, four things about the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, when our Lord,
as our high priest, was praying from John 17 to his father on
behalf of his people, he said this, this is life eternal, that
they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom
thou hast sent. This is life eternal. The Lord
is telling us in that one statement, in that one utterance of his
prayer to the Father, what the purpose and the meaning of life
is. It's to have life in Christ,
to have eternal life, to know God, to know God. This knowledge of God can only
come by divine revelation. The Lord has to open the eyes,
he has to unstop the ears, he has to make the heart alive. It all happens in the new birth.
The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit. We're
completely dependent upon him to reveal himself to us. If we know him, it's because
he's made himself known unto us. For left to ourselves, no
man seeketh after God at any time. The means by which the
Lord reveals himself is the preaching of the gospel by the Word of
God, empowered by the Spirit of God. And so every time we
come together and we preach Christ, our hope and our prayer is that
the Lord will use this means to accomplish a spiritual work
of grace in our hearts. And here in this one verse, the
Lord reveals at least in part, for things about himself. And
if he's pleased to give us ears to hear and eyes to see and cause
us to believe that this is who the Lord Jesus Christ is, then
we will have our hope in him. Some turn to the Bible just to
learn doctrine so that they might have their knowledge puffed up
and find an advantage over other men. Some go to the Bible in
order to learn historical stories. And again, the whole purpose
is that knowledge puffeth up. Some men go to the Bible in order
to learn some moral principles that they can put into practice
in their life in order to improve the circumstances of their life
in this world. Men use the Bible for a lot of
different things. The Pharisees certainly did.
And the Lord rebuked them when he said, you search the scriptures
because you think in them you have eternal life, but these
are they which testify of me. In the volume of the book, it
is written of me. God has given us his word as
an autobiography, revealing the glorious person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And we cannot see ourselves as
sinners until he's pleased to make himself known. And so there's
our hope. If you'll look with me at verse
10, Deborah says four things here about the Lord Jesus Christ. And I don't often do this, but
I've alliterated this, the outline to this message. Maybe it'll
help you to have something to hang your thoughts on, it helps
me. The first point that she makes about the Lord Jesus Christ
says something about his heart. You see that where he says, speak,
speak from the issues of the heart, the mouth speaks. The
Lord reveals his heart to us when he speaks. The second thing
she says is, ye that ride on white asses. And this speaks
to us about the humility of the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember
clearly when the Lord made his triumphal entry there just days
before his crucifixion, coming into Jerusalem as a reigning
king, who's going to die as a suffering servant. And he comes in riding on a colt,
on an ass. And it tells us about the humility
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we're gonna learn something
of his heart, something of his humility. Thirdly, Deborah says,
ye that sit in judgment. And there we're going to learn
something about his holiness. And the last point that she makes,
ye that walk by the way, and there we're going to learn something
about the habit of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we have his heart,
his humility, his holiness, and his habit, all in this one verse,
God revealing to us things about the Lord Jesus Christ. And, By
habit, I don't mean habit in the sense that we use the word
habit. I mean this is his habitual behavior. This is what he does all the
time. He walks by the way. Out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaks. Here we learn something about
the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ when she prays and calls upon
him to speak. This word also is translated
meditate. Want to know what's in a man's
heart, listen to what he says. And yet the Lord Jesus Christ
was different Oh, infinitely different and infinitely holy
in his meditations and in his speech. You and I have to filter
the things that we think before they come out of our mouth. If
you don't, you're a fool. The Lord Jesus Christ never had
to do that. He never had to do that. Every
word he spoke and every thought he had was perfect. He didn't have to sort through
his thoughts like you and I did, do, and choose his words carefully. He just was able to speak what
he thought, every thought that he had. He loved the Lord God
with all of his heart and all of his mind and all of his soul,
all of the time. What percentage of your thoughts
do you want other men to know? The vast majority of our thoughts
are filled with nothing but vanity and worldly concerns and lust. Oh, and here's what God says
in Psalm 139. He knows our thoughts before
we think them. Before we think them, He knows our thoughts.
We're not hiding anything from Him, but we ought to hide them
from one another. He never had to hide anything.
Every word he spoke was the perfect word of God. Psalm 1, he is the
blessed man and his delight was in the law of the Lord. And in
his law, did he meditate day and night. He never had a meditating
thought. He never had an idea that wasn't
consistent with the perfect word of God. And all he had to do
was open his mouth and speak what he thought. And it was always
God's word. Here's what the child of God
says, Lord, speak to me. Speak to me the meditations of
your thoughts. For surely Lord, your thoughts
are not like my thoughts. Your ways are not like my ways. The Bible says, it's not what
goes into the mouth that defiles a man, but rather what comes
out of a mouth. By your word, you'll be justified. And by your word, you'll be condemned.
And he's speaking there about the things that we say about
Christ. But oh, how much there is to condemn each and every
one of us by the words that we speak. And much more than that,
by the thoughts that we have. The holy, undefiled, separate
from sinners, higher than the heavens, son of God, never had
to worry about that. And he presents himself to his
heavenly father, as the perfect man, God's perfect man, and man's
perfect God. The Lord Jesus Christ, who was
never defiled in thought, word, or deed, was perfect before the
Father. This is my beloved Son. In Him,
I am well pleased. Hear ye Him! That's what Deborah's
saying. Speak, Lord, to me the meditations
of your heart. I don't want to just hear the
voice of a man. I need you to make the word of God alive and
effectual in my heart. I need for you to make me to
believe you and to hear you. Turn with me to John chapter
12. John chapter 12. Look at verse 49. I am come a light into the world
that whosoever believeth in me should not abide in darkness.
And if any man hear my words and believe not, I judge him
not. For I came not to judge the world,
but to save the world. He that rejecteth me and receiveth
not my words, hath one that judgeth him. The word that I have spoken,
the same shall judge him in the last day." God makes you to be
a believer. You believe everything that he
said. You hang all the hopes of your immortal soul on the
perfect Word of God, knowing that it all reveals the glory
of Christ. And you continue, you continue
to cry out in prayer, Lord, speak to me. Remember when Samuel heard
the Lord speaking to him, and he thought it was Eli, and he
kept going to Eli, and Eli said, no, it's the Lord. You just ask
him to speak. And then Samuel, the third time
he heard the Lord speak, he said, speak, Lord, for thy servant
listeneth. Lord, I'm listening. And I'm
not here to listen in order to weigh your words and determine
which of them are true. I'm here to hear all that God
has commanded you to say unto me. Lord, speak the meditations
of your heart, for the meditations of my heart are vain. They're
fleshly, they're sinful. And so few words that I'm able
to speak, and even they, Lord, are mixed with my hypocrisy. Lord, you're the only one who
has unfamed lips. You're the only one that can
speak the truth. And I can't find anybody else
or anywhere else to go to hear the word of God. We learn something about our
Lord's heart. A good man, a good man. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
Remember when he told the rich young ruler, why callest thou
me good? For there's none good but God.
When he said, good master, what shall I do to inherit eternal
life? Why are you calling me good?
It's not good, but God. Paul said in Romans chapter three,
in me, that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. All the goodness
that there is in the sight of God is bound up in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And only if he presents himself
on my behalf, will I be counted righteous and worthy and good
in the sight of God. So Lord speak, a good man out
of the good treasure in his heart bringeth forth good things. And an evil man out of the evil
treasure that is in his heart bringeth forth evil things. For out of the abundance of the
heart does the mouth speak. Oh Lord speak, speak to me. Speak effectual to me. Speak
your living word to me. Here's our prayer. Lord, show
me your heart. Show me your heart. Now, I said
earlier, you can tell what a man's heart is by listening to him
speak, but not really. Not really. You don't want anybody
to know the dark recesses of your heart, do you? So you filter
your words so that your heart, your words don't actually fully
reveal your heart. They do in the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything he has spoken reveals
his heart. So when the Lord says, when Deborah's
saying, Lord, speak, speak the meditations of your heart to
me, show me your heart. Lord, I want to know you. I want
to know you. This is life eternal, that they
might know thee. I don't want to just know history
and doctrine and morality and things about you. I want to know
you. Paul said that I might know him. The fellowship of his suffering,
the power of his resurrection. I need to know God. If I'm going
to know God, God's going to have to reveal himself to me. He's
going to have to show me his heart. That's why the Bible says
that the believer has the mind of Christ. We have the mind of
Christ because we believe everything that he's spoken. let him who has ears to hear
hear what the spirit saith unto the churches lord give me an
ear to hear or we uh the hearing ear is never satisfied is it
that the ear of the flesh is never satisfied the eye of the
flesh is never satisfied But when the ear is opened to hear
the word of God, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and
they follow me. We just believe God. We believe
everything that God has said. Everyone that is of the truth,
heareth my voice. How do I know if I've heard him? Well, a good example would be
found in Saul of Tarsus' experience when he was arrested by God,
by the Lord Jesus Christ, on the road to Damascus. He was
breathing out threatenings. He was an enemy of the church
and at enmity with God. And he was riding on the high
horse of his own self-righteousness, believing that all the things
that he had done was going to, was gained to him, is what he
said. I think that these things are gained to me. They're going
to earn me favor with God. And the Lord shined a light from
heaven and said to him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Who art thou, Lord? I am Jesus
whom thou persecutest. And what did Saul say? Lord,
what would you have me to do? You see, bowing in submission
is the evidence of having heard his voice. Lord, what would you
have me to do? And the scripture says that the
men that were with him heard a voice, but saw no man. Oh, there's so many people who
have heard the Word of God. They can recite the Word of God. They can tell you the historical
events of the Bible. They can, like the Pharisees,
they can tell you a lot about. They've heard the voice of God,
but they saw no man. They didn't see the Lord Jesus
Christ. These things are written of Him. Go back with me to our text. If we're gonna know God, he's
gonna have to reveal himself. If he reveals himself, it'll
be by the means of preaching his word. And here we see something of
the heart of Christ. Look at verse nine. My heart
is toward the governors of Israel. Oh, there's the heart of God.
He's loved us with an everlasting love. The thoughts that I have
for you, they're for good and not for evil, to bring you to
your expected end. It's the goodness of God that
leadeth to repentance. It's the love of Christ that
breaks the heart and brings us to faith in Christ. It's not
the threats of judgment. My heart, here's what he's, the
Lord's telling us what his heart is. And when he speaks and what
he's given to us in his word is when he speaks, don't pretend
to hear the voice of God apart from what he's speaking, apart
from what he said in his word. There are plenty of folks that
will, you know, God said to me this and God said to me that
and told me to do this and told me to do that. Be careful. Those kind of things are very
subjective, aren't they? This is the objective word of
God that we hold to and believe and rest in. Here's what God
says, I've loved you with an everlasting love. Never been
a time. My heart is toward the governors
of Israel. He loved them. to the end is
what the scripture says. Lord, speak that truth to my
heart. Give me ears to hear. Speak,
Lord, show me your heart and show me your humility. Look at
the next part of this verse in our text in Judges chapter five
at verse 10. Speak ye that ride on white asses
Now the donkey or the burrow is always spoken of in the Bible
as an ass. It's a beast of burden. It's
an unclean animal. The Bible says that the Lord
gave to the children of Israel dietary laws, which all have
gospel implications. You know, I know there's a lot
of people that want to try to follow the dietary laws of the Bible
today. Think that, you know, maybe there
are some health benefits to that, but that's not the purpose of
them. The purpose of them is to reveal the gospel. And what
were the unclean animals? An animal to be clean had to
have a cloven hoof and it had to chew the cud. And if it didn't
have one of those two things, if it didn't ruminate on its
food, it didn't regurgitate its food back into its mouth and
get all the nourishment out of that food and swallow it back.
And if it didn't have a split hoof and it had to have both,
then it was an unclean animal. A donkey has neither. donkey
doesn't ruminate, and a donkey doesn't have a split hoof. And
so the donkey was a unclean animal. Now what is the issue here? What
is the application? Well, only the believer takes
the Word of God and ruminates on it, drawing from it all the
spiritual nourishment in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the foot is the way in which we walk. You know, the foot is
a symbol of our walk. And our walk in this life is
divided. In that we have two natures.
We have two natures. That's that clove and hoof. If
we could walk perfectly after Christ all the time, that would
be our heart's desire. But we don't. So the clean animal
ruminates and has a split hoof. The donkey has neither. The ass
has neither. It's an unclean animal. And the
Bible says you touch an unclean animal, you become unclean. And
you have to go through the ceremonial process. And where do we find
this unclean animal? We see him bringing the Lord
Jesus Christ into the city of Jerusalem on his triumphal entry. when they came together and praised
him and sang, Hosanna, Hosanna to the highest. And that same
exact crowd just a few days later was crying, crucify him, crucify
him. White, you know, in the Bible
is a picture of holiness. And now, so here the scripture
says the Lord Jesus Christ is riding on a white ass. Now, Job asked this question
in Job chapter 14. He said, how can that which is
unholy be made holy? How can that which is unclean
be made clean? And then he answers the question.
He says, not a man can do it. No man can make that which is
unclean clean. And here we have an ass, an unclean
animal who neither chews the cud or has a divided hoof being
made white. And the scripture says, ye that
come riding upon a white ass. Now, and again, we have in the
Bible a picture of the ass when Samson took the jawbone, the
new jawbone of an ass, and he slew a thousand Philistines with
it. Now, there we have the actual
jawbone, which is a picture of the words that are coming out
of this ass, which we see also in Balaam. You remember when
Balaam was riding on an ass and the ass spoke. You say, well,
that would be amazing to hear a donkey talk. Well, you're hearing
one right now. And there's no more, there's
no less a miracle for me to be able to stand up here and declare
the gospel and for you to be able to hear it than for that
actual experience where that donkey actually spoke. This is
a greater miracle than that. It's a greater miracle. Don't
look for the physical. Look for the spiritual. This
is a much greater miracle. And what did that donkey say?
What did that ass say to Balaam? Balaam was a false prophet. And
the Balaam was on the back of this beast of burden. And the
donkey said, why are you beating me? I just saved your life. The donkey saw the angel of the
Lord with a drawn flaming sword. And he asked the false prophet,
what do you got against me? I'm telling you the truth. I
just saved your life. I've had to say that many times.
You know, Shoot the messenger. No, don't shoot me. What I'm
telling you is true. What I'm telling you is saving
your life. You see where this is going,
don't you? God has taken an unclean animal and he's made him clean
through the righteousness of Christ. And he's put his word
into his mouth. And the gospel shows the humility
of all of us, you, me, and the Lord Jesus Christ, when he comes
riding on the back of a white ass. You're humbled to have to hear
God from the voice of a man. I'm humbled to have to stand
up here and do something that is far beyond my ability to do.
And the Lord Jesus Christ is humbled in that he deals with
each one of us one-on-one in our hearts. He could appear here
right now. He could come with an army of
angels and demonstrate his glory. And he could do that for every
person in this world. That's what men are waiting for.
And one day they'll see him. and it'll be too late. One day
the Eastern sky is gonna split and the glory of the Trump of
God is gonna sound and the dead of Christ are gonna be raised
and the Son of God is going to appear. Men are looking for that
kind of experience now. Why? Because they're proud. They
want to have a, I want a personal encounter with God. I want God
to come down to me and manifest himself to me. This is the means
by which he manifests himself to his people. And how humbling
is this means? How humbling is this means? For
God to speak riding on a white ass. You see the purpose of it? Our God's a humble God. Christ
is so humble. And he's gonna humble his people.
And he's not gonna, faith comes by hearing. And hearing gives
you no, I had a man ask me yesterday, same guy that wanted to know
why I left the old church. He said, give me your email address,
I wanna debate this. That's what he said, I wanna
debate this. I said, sorry. I'm not here to debate the gospel.
I'm here to declare it. Why would a man want to debate
the gospel? Because he's proud and self-righteous. He wants to prove himself right. The humility of our God. coming
into Jerusalem, riding on the back of a white ass, speaking
through the ass of Balaam, taking that jawbone of an ass and slaying
a thousand Philistines. And I love that. You know, when
after Samson slew those Philistines, the scripture says he was so
thirsty from the battle that he thought he was gonna die.
And he said, Lord, you delivered me from these Philistines, now
you're gonna let me die of thirst? And he picked up the same jawbone,
which he had thrown down, and he picked it up. And in that
jawbone, the Lord had created a cavity and filled it with water. And he drank water from the jawbone
of the ass. So the jawbone of the ass slew
the Philistines and it provided him water, the water of life. Oh, what a humble God we serve.
What humility we see in the Lord Jesus Christ laying down His
life for His people. The Son of God condescended to
come down into this world from heaven. He left His rightful
throne and He was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, born
of a woman, born under the law to redeem them who were cursed
by the law. Here our Lord drew His sustenance
from the breast of a woman that He made. How humbling is that? How humble was he in his dealing
with his people? He said, I have much more to
say unto you, but you can't bear it right now. And he dealt with
them humbly and lovingly. And then the greatest demonstration
of his humility is when he laid his life down willingly. No man
took it from him. He comes riding still today on
a white ass. Turn to me to Genesis chapter
49. Let me show you one more passage about the donkey, the
beast of burden, the burrow. Genesis chapter 49. Look at verse nine. Judah, Jacob is
blessing his sons. And now he's identified Judah.
And you know who that's a picture of? The Lord Jesus Christ is
the lion of the tribe of Judah. He came through the tribe of
Judah. And so Judah, thou art he whom
thy brethren shall praise. Thy hand shall be in the neck
of thine enemies and thy father's children shall bow down before
thee. Oh, what a glorious picture of
the Lord Jesus Christ. His brethren praise him, and
we bow down before him. Judah is a lion's whelp. From the prey, my son, thou art
gone up. He stooped down, he couched as
a lion, and as an old lion, who shall rouse him up? Here's the Lord Jesus Christ getting the victory. over our
sin. The scepter, now that's his authority. That's his power. The scepter
shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his
feet until Shiloh come. There we have him again. Shiloh, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And unto him shall the gathering of the people be. Now look at
verse 11. Binding his foal unto the vine. Binding his donkey, his white
ass, to the vine. Now you know what the vine is. The vine's the church. The Lord
Jesus Christ calls us that vine, that choice vine. planted in
a choice land, the vine that he prunes, the vine that he's
determined to prove to bring fruit from, the vine that he
called Israel. He said, this vineyard, this
vine is going to be taken from you and given to another nation.
This is the vine. And what is our Lord saying here?
I'm going to bind this white ass that I come riding on into
Jerusalem to my vine. Oh, what a relationship. You
know, in religion, Preachers are always looking for a bigger
and better place to go. Always looking for a larger congregation. Not so among God's people. It's
a marriage. It's a marriage. You guys are
stuck with me, okay? The Lord binds his white ass
to the vine. And it's a burden for us all. I can tell you it's a burden
for me. And I know it's a burden for you to have to listen to
me all the time, but here's what the Lord says. This is the humility
that God brings all of us to. God is pleased to use the foolishness
of preaching to save them which believe. How shall they call
upon him in whom they've not believed? And how shall they
believe on him in whom they've not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? The preaching of the gospel is
the white ass carrying the burden of Christ into Jerusalem, tending
to the vineyard that the fruit of God's grace might be produced.
What are we learning here? We're learning about the humility
of our God and the humility that he brings to the hearts of his
people. Speak, Lord, ye that come riding on a white ass. Show me your heart and empower
your preaching. Enable me to believe what's being
declared. Look at the next, the third thing
I want you to see here. We've seen the heart of our God. And we've seen something of the
humility of our God. And now we're going to be brought
to see something of his holiness. Look at our text, verse 10. Ye that sit in judgment. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
standard by which all things are judged. He is seated at the
right hand of God. And the Lord the Father said
to him, sit thou here at my right hand until I make thine enemies
thy footstool. And that's what he's doing. He's
taking those who are by nature at enmity with him, who will
not bow and will not believe. And he's bringing them to his
footstool. He's standing as their judge. He will stand as the judge of
the whole world. When the fire of God's wrath
falls and the son of God comes riding with a tongue, a sword,
a flaming sword, he'll bring judgment to the world. He brought
judgment to the father when he bowed his mighty head on Calvary's
cross and said, it is finished. He's the end of the law for righteousness. All justice was satisfied by
his death on Calvary's cross. Ye that bring judgment. Turn to me to John chapter five.
John chapter five. Don't mistake the gentleness
and the love and the humility of the Lord Jesus Christ for
tolerance. Don't do it. He's coming and
he will stand as judge. God demands justice. He's holy
and requires justice. And that's what our Lord accomplished.
when he went to Calvary's cross. You have your Bibles open to
John chapter five. Look with me, if you will, at
verse 22. For the father judgeth no man,
but he committed all judgment unto the son, that all men should
honor the son, even as they honor the father. He that honoreth
not the son honoreth not the father which hath sent him. Barely,
barely, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, Lord, speak
and believeth. Lord, you've come riding on a
white ass and I believe you. that sent me hath everlasting
life, and shall not come into judgment or into condemnation,
but is passed from death unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto
you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear
the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in
himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself. verse 27, "...and hath given
him authority to exercise judgment also, because he is the Son of
Man." Now, the Son of Man is speaking of the humanity of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and so he exercised judgment when, as the
God-man, he hung on Calvary's cross and satisfied all of God's
judgment and all of his justice. Speak, Lord. Show me your heart. Ye that come riding on a white
ass. Lord, you're so humble. Make
me humble. Make me humble enough to bow. Make me humble enough
to believe. What else does he say? Ye that
sit in judgment. Lord, let my sins be judged in
Christ on Calvary's cross. Lord, don't hold one sin to my
charge. Lord, if you find me guilty of
one infraction of your law, one thought that wasn't pure and
perfect, like was the thoughts of the Lord Jesus Christ, Lord,
I'll go to hell for it. Let your judgment be fulfilled
in what Christ has done on Calvary's cross. You see where the Lord
is revealing himself, isn't he? He's revealing himself. This is divine revelation. And the last thing that he tells
us, ye that walk by the way. You know, the Lord is the one who
judges, going back to judgment for just a moment. The Lord is
the one who judges between what's holy and what's profane. He judges
between what's right and what's wrong. He judges between what
is truth and what is error. He's the one that's been given
judgment. We just read that in John chapter five. He's been
given this authority by his father to make judgments about all things.
What is faith? Faith is judging his judgments
to be true. So whatever God says, that's
the way it is. His judgments. He says I'm a
sinner. That's the way it is. I judge
myself to be guilty. Believing that you're a sinner,
as I said earlier, does not mean that you felt the full weight
of your sin and your shame and your guilt. Believing you're
a sinner is just agreeing with the judgment of God. All have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. Lord, everything
about me has fallen short of your glory. There's nothing about
me that's like him. So you say I'm a sinner, Lord,
I'm a sinner. There are times when I feel the
guilt of it. Most of the shame that I feel is when I'm caught
more so than because I've done anything or thought anything,
but Lord, you're the one that, You call me a sinner, I'm a sinner.
I agree. Lord, I take sides with you against
myself. That's faith. It's just believing
God. His judgments are true. We bow
to him. We bow to his word. We judge
him to be holy and just. And we judge the work of salvation
to be finished. Why? Because he said so. It's
finished. Everything that God requires
of you and me was accomplished in Christ. He's looking to Christ
for everything. And he tells us to make righteous
judgments. Now that doesn't, it's sinful
to look down your self-righteous nose and think you'd be better
than somebody else and judge people on that regard. But it's
equally sinful to not make righteous judgments. to not agree with
God over what he's judged to be true and not true and what
he's judged to be holy and profane. And you see, agreeing with God
in his judgments. The Lord showed us in this one
verse, something of his heart, something of his humility and
something of his holiness. And finally, We're going to see
something of his habitual behavior. Every step that he took in this
world was in obedience to his father. Look at the last part
of this verse. Ye that walk by the way. He walked in perfect obedience
to his heavenly father. You and I have a cloven hoof.
Our walk is staggering at best. We walk after him, and that means
that we're looking to his walk as the hope of our righteousness.
We're looking to his obedience to the Father, obedient, yea,
even unto death, yes, even the death of the cross. He was obedient. He took every step, every step
he took, was a step closer to that moment when he walked with
that cross on his back and laid down his life on that cross and
was put to death for the sins of his people. Every step he
walked by the way, he carried the cross to Mount Calvary. The Bible calls the mountain
with the hill on which the Lord was crucified, it calls it Calvary
and it calls it Dolgotha. Dolgotha is the Aramaic word
and Calvary is the Greek word and both of those words translated
means skull. And they say that that hill is
still there and it looks like a skull because it's got some
hollow spots in the rock. But is that what it's about?
No, God created that rock in order to teach us this, that
when the Lord Jesus Christ bowed his mighty head on Calvary's
cross, he accomplished the crushing of the head of the serpent. The
serpent that bruised his heel, he crushed his head and he delivered
his people from his reign. He led captivity captive. Oh,
what a glorious Savior we have. He walked by the way perfectly. And he says to us, be therefore
followers of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also
hath loved us and given himself for us as an offering and a sacrifice
to God. The Lord Jesus Christ made himself
an offering and sacrifice to his father. And the rest of that
verse says, a sweet smelling savor. The smoke of his sacrifice
came into the nostrils of God and God was pleased. When the
smoke of our sacrifices come before the nostrils of God, he's
nauseated. He's not pleased. Paul said in Philippians chapter
three, I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling
of God in Christ Jesus. Let as many as be like-minded
walk by the same rule. We're walking after Christ. We're
walking in love. We're walking as children of
the light. We're walking in Him. Can you see Him? Can you see
something of His heart by every word that He speaks? You see
something of His humility by the fact that He uses the preaching
of the gospel, the foolishness of preaching. That's what the
world calls it, to save the elect. You see something of His holiness,
and that all judgment has been given unto Him. And you see something
of His perpetual, habitual life, and that His walk, step by step,
was in perfect obedience to His Father, to accomplish His purpose,
the saving of His people on Calvary's cross. Faith comes by hearing. If we're going to know God, he's
going to have to reveal himself. If he reveals himself, it'll
be by his word. And he'll give us faith to say,
Lord, what would you have me to do? Our heavenly father, bless your
word to our hearts. We ask it for Christ's sake. Amen. Number 12 in the spiral hymnal,
let's stand together. Number 12. Bye.