Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 53 from the hardback hymnal, number 53,
How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds. And let's all stand together. How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
in a believer's ear. It soothes his sorrows, heals
his wounds, and drives away his fear. Dear name, the rock on
which I build my shield and hiding place, mine ever failing treasury
filled with boundless stores of grace. Jesus, my shepherd,
brother, friend, my prophet, priest, and king, my Lord, my
life, my way, my end, accept the praise I bring. Weak is the effort of my heart,
And cold my warmest thought, But when I see thee as thou art,
I'll praise thee as I ought. Till then I would thy love proclaim
with every fleeting breath. And may the music of thy name
refresh my soul in death. Please be seated. What a day that'll be. When I
see thee as thou art, I'll praise thee as I ought. Let's open our Bibles for our
scripture reading to Exodus chapter 34. Exodus 34. We're going to bring a message,
Lord willing, from Psalm 67 on God as my judge. And this passage relates so well
to what I want to try to bring out of that verse in Psalm 67. In verse five of Exodus 34, and
the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and
proclaimed the name of the Lord. Now Moses is on Mount Sinai. The first set of laws, God hewed
the stones and God wrote in the stones with his finger the commandments. Moses went down and found children
of Israel and Aaron worshiping the golden calf, and Moses cast
down the law of God and broke it, symbolic of the condition
that that the people of Israel were in, breaking God's law.
And then the Lord said to Moses, He said, Moses, you hew the stones
this time and bring them on the mountain and I'll inscribe the
law on them. So here we have a picture of
Moses as Christ who's bringing himself as the rock on which
the law of God is written. And Moses goes up on the mountain
and meets with the Lord in chapter 34. Remember, this is where Moses
said, Lord, show me thy glory. And the Lord said to Moses, no
man can see me and live. And so the Lord put Moses in
the cleft of a rock. And the Lord passed by before
him, verse six, and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God. He proclaimed his own name. Merciful
and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and
truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression
and sin. Iniquity, transgression and sin. And that will by no means clear
the guilty. My justice must be served. Every
sin must be punished. Visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children, upon the children's children, unto
the third and fourth generation. And Moses made haste and bowed
his head towards the earth and worshiped. And he said, if now
I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, Let my Lord, I pray thee
go among us for it is a stiff neck people and pardon our iniquity
and our sin and take us for thine inheritance. And he said, behold,
I make a covenant before all thy people, I will do marvels
such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation. And all the people among which
thou art shall see the work of the Lord, for it is a terrible
thing that I will do with thee." Moses, as the intercessor of
the children of Israel, reminds us of what the Lord Jesus Christ
did when he went before the Father. And the father said, I'm going
to do terrible things through you. Sara Lynn and Orr had some damage
at their property up in Pennsylvania from a storm that came through
there the other day. And they have to leave tomorrow to go
tend to things up there. And they weren't going to be
here for, I guess, about another month. So they'll be leaving us tonight,
and we won't see them. again, probably till the fall. So pray for the Lord, give you
all safe travel and give you wisdom on dealing with the property
damage that you have up there. We'll miss you. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
that you are a just God and a God of mercy. We thank you that mercy
and truth. Righteousness and peace. Met
together. In the sacrifice that you made
of your own darling son on Calvary's Cross. We ask that in this hour
you would enable us Lord once again to rest our hope and our
joy. On the accomplished work of the
Lord Jesus Christ, who himself met your divine justice, fulfilled
all the law, and became our advocate. Pray that you would meet with
us and open your word and open our hearts. We thank you for
Cyril and for Lenore, and we ask that you give them safe travel
back north and give them wisdom in dealing with the trials that
you've sent their way. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Number 229. Let's all stand together
again. 229 tell me the old old story. Tell me the old, old story of
unseen things above, of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and His
love. Tell me the story simply as to
a little child For I am weak and weary and helpless and defiled
Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story of
Jesus and his love. Tell me the story slowly that
I may take it in. That wonderful redemption, God's
remedy for sin. Tell me the story often, for
I forget so soon. The early dew of morning has
passed away at noon. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story of
Jesus and His love. Tell me the story softly with
earnest tones and grave. Remember I'm the sinner whom
Jesus came to save. Tell me the story always, if
you would really be In any time of trouble, a comforter to be
Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story of
Jesus and His love. Tell me the same old story when
you have cause to fear that this world's empty glory is costing
me too dear. Yes, and when that world's glory
is dawning on my soul, Tell me the old, old story, Christ Jesus
makes thee whole. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story of
Jesus and his love. Please be seated. Tell me the story slowly, but
I may take it in. I want to try to bring a message
very deliberate and slowly tonight. We're going to be looking at
several different passages of scripture. And my hope is that
the Lord will show us one more time His successful redemption
and remind us again of that old old story Christ safe centers
we'll be your Bibles with me to Psalm 67 please Psalm 67 have
you ever heard someone say don't judge me God will be my judge
God will be my judge well the truth is God's people don't judge
men. We see our own need for grace
more than anyone else and we don't stand in judgment of anyone
but I fear that the person who says God will be my judge has
no idea what they're going to face in God being their judge. our god has a has a perfect law
and uh... he makes no exceptions he doesn't
judge based on a curve he doesn't make any uh... exceptions to his law it's perfect
obedience to the law of god or it's a law breaker in uh... Psalm 67, verse here that I want
us to look at. Verse 4. Oh, let the nations
be glad. Let the nations be glad. These
nations are the nations that God's people live in. of every
tribe and every kindred. This is the Gentile nations.
These are the nations that the Lord promised. Turn with me to
Isaiah chapter 42 before we go any further. See who these, who
is this addressed to? Who are these nations that God
is speaking to? Psalm 42, the first six verses. Behold, God says my servant,
look to Christ whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth. This is my beloved son, in him
I'm well pleased. He has satisfied my demands for
righteousness and holiness. He is the end of the law for
righteousness. He has done everything that I
require, and He's the only one that ever did. I have put my
spirit upon Him. He came as the Anointed One. He came as the Messiah, the Christ,
in the full power of God. to accomplish the purpose which
God sent him. I have put my spirit upon him
and he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles." That's who
the nations are, the Gentiles. When the Lord said to Nicodemus,
Nicodemus, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son. The Lord is referring to these Gentiles. Nicodemus would
have thought that salvation was only for the Israelites. And
the Lord is making it clear that he's got people in the nations,
in every nation of the world. He shall not cry. The Lord Jesus
Christ is not looking for a following. He's not desperately trying to
get people to believe in him. He knows who his sheep are. And
in God's time, what did Paul say? He said, when it pleased
God, who separated me from my mother's womb, when it pleased
God to reveal Christ in me. And that's when God makes his
people willing in the day of his power, doesn't he? He's not
running around trying to get folks to believe on him. When
he's ready to bring one of his lost sheep home, he's gonna bring
them home. and whatever nation they're in,
wherever they are scattered in the world. So this is who Psalm
67 verse 4 is being spoken to. Brethren, this is us. We're these
Gentiles. We're the ones that are scattered
throughout the world. This is God's promise to His
church. He shall not cry, nor lift up,
nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed
shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench." Oh,
that's what we are, aren't we? We're just bruised reeds. A hollow
reed. A broken reed. And we're only
hollow and broken when God makes us so. And then he says, I bruised
you, and I'm not going to break you. I've, I've caused you to become
a smoking flax, like a, like a, like a lamp that's out of
oil, but I'm going to, I'm going to blow the wind of my spirit
on that wick and I'm going to renew and refresh the oil in
the lamp. I'm not going to blow, I'm not
going to put it out. He shall bring forth judgment
unto truth. judgment unto truth. God has to be faithful to the
truth and he has to judge all sin. He will in no wise let the
guilty go unpunished. He shall not fail nor be discouraged
till he has set judgment in the earth and the isles shall wait
for his law. For his law. You know, I think
about our legal system. And I've been on a jury a couple
of times, and it was clear to me that the lawyers weren't really
interested in truth. And the only time the lawyers
used the law was that if it benefited their client. And if there was
a law that made their client look bad, they tried to, that's
the reason the judge is in the courtroom. The judge is in the
courtroom to enforce the law because the lawyers aren't interested
in fulfilling the law. And like I said, unless it's
to their benefit. But the judge has some discretion, doesn't
he? Once the decision is made, the judge has some discretion
as to what the penalty will be for the crime. It could be anywhere
from a fine to years imprisonment. And depending on the circumstances,
the judge can make some. It's not so with God. Not so
with God. He has a perfect law, a perfect
standard of righteousness. The scripture refers to the Lord
Jesus Christ as the plumb line. One thing about a plumb line,
it always hangs straight. It always hangs straight. And everything is measured by
that plumb line. And God as the judge can, makes
no exceptions. He doesn't have, he doesn't,
he doesn't take into consideration, well, this was the motive of
this lawbreaker and this was the motive of that lawbreaker.
No, every law will be punished. And there's no, and there are
no degrees of punishment. It's not like a fine or imprisonment. The punishment is death. That's
the punishment. In the day in which you sin,
you shall surely die. The wages of sin is death. There's no exception. Nothing. So regardless of the variation
from the standard of the law, the penalty with God as judge
is the death penalty. Men say, I'll let God be my judge.
Are you sure you want that? You sure you want that? Well,
he knows my heart. He'll take into consideration
my motives. Yeah, he will. He will. And he'll say, condemned, guilty,
depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. Look at verse five. Isaiah 42,
thus saith God the Lord, he that created the heavens and stretched
them out, he that spread forth the earth and that which cometh
out of it, he that giveth breath unto the people upon it and the
spirit to them that walk therein, I the Lord have called thee in
righteousness and will hold thine hand and will keep thee and give
thee for a covenant of the people for a light of the Gentiles. Now, that's the Father's promise
to the Son. The Father says, I'm going to hold your hand and
I'm going to give you as a surety of the everlasting covenant for
those nations, those Gentiles. Turn with me to Psalm 85. Psalm
85. Judges are to be impartial, they're
to be impassionate, they're to be unbiased. They are arbitrators
of the law. And so it is with God as judge. He's not going to allow one single
violation of his law to go unpunished, not one. So what is our hope
as lawbreakers? Psalm 85 verse 20, verse 10,
mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. Now that's what the Lord said
to Moses in Exodus 34. I will have mercy upon whom I
will have mercy, I will not allow one violation of my law to go
unpunished. I will forgive the iniquity and
the transgression of sin for my people. Where did this, where
did mercy and truth meet together? The truth is that God is holy
and must punish sin. God is a just God and cannot
allow one violation of his law to go unpunished. And yet, God
is a God of mercy. Where did mercy and truth meet
together? Where did righteousness and peace kiss each other? How can we as sinners have peace
with God? How can God be just and justify
the ungodly at the same time? Well, you know where it happened,
don't you? It happened at the cross. That's where righteousness
and peace kissed each other. That's where mercy and truth
met together. God able to be just. and justify as the Lord Jesus
Christ bore in his body all the sins of all of his people and
suffered the full wrath of God's holy justice in order to satisfy
the Father. God saw the travail of his soul,
and God said, I'm satisfied. Behold, mine elect, mine elect,
in whom I put my spirit, the one in whom I'm satisfied. Look
to him, look to him for all your righteousness before God. That's
what he came to do. That's what the cross is all
about. The cross is all about God. Making an offer to God. In order to satisfy holy justice
in order for mercy and peace. To be. For his people, for his
church. That's the gospel, isn't it?
So. Go back with me to our to our
text. Psalm 67. We saw that our God will by no
means clear the guilty. Oh, let the nations be glad and
sing for joy. Oh, there's a lot of reasons
to Be anxious in this world, isn't there? There's a lot of
reasons for anxiety. There's a lot of reasons for
sadness rather than gladness. There's a lot of reasons to feel afflicted. There's trials
and troubles in this life. And the Lord says, oh, you nations
of the world, rejoice. Rejoice and be glad. Why? For thou, for thou shalt judge
the people righteously. There's our reason for being
glad. The Lord Jesus Christ is going to judge his people righteously. He's saying be happy. Sing for
joy. Don't be sad. Yes, there's suffering. Yes,
there's sickness. Yes, there's death. There's sorrow. And death is not just the physical
death that is called the last enemy. There's a lot of different
kinds of deaths in this world and in this life, isn't there?
There's the death of marriages. There's the death of relationships. There's the death of a job. There's
lots of things that come to an end that cause us to not be joyful
and to not be happy. And the Lord's saying here, oh,
you nations, be full of joy, sing for joy, be glad for he
shall judge thee in righteousness. So we can say, yes, I want God
to be my judge. I want God to be my judge. I
want to be found in Christ, not having my own righteousness which
is of the law, but that righteousness which is by the faithfulness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. God would be my judge. If He should mark iniquity, who
can stand? If God judges me based on one
moment of my life, I'm not going to be able to stand in His presence.
But here's what the Lord is saying. Be glad. Sing for joy. For the Lord himself is your
judge. He's your judge. Turn with me
to Revelation chapter 20. Those who would say in self-righteousness, don't judge
me, God will be my judge. I'll be all right. He knows my
heart. Yes, he does. And that's the
problem, isn't it? Here's what God says, Revelation chapter 20 at verse
11, And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat upon it, from
whose face the earth and heaven fled away, and there was found
no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and
great, stand before God. And the books were opened, and
another book was opened. which is the book of life. And
the dead were judged out of those things which were written in
the books according to their works. So you've got two different books
here. You've got the book of life and
you've got the book whereby God has recorded every deed that
every person has ever done. And those who are not found in
the book of life are being judged by the deeds that God has recorded
in the other book. Look what he says. The dead. as the unbeliever were
judged out of those things which were written in the books according
to their works and the sea gave up the dead which was in it and
death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them and they
were judged every man according to their works and death and
hell were cast into the lake of fire this is the second death
this is the second death if men I was talking to Brian Olson
today, and they're up in Illinois with family. You know, Jill's
father passed away. We prayed for Jill last Wednesday
night, and he passed away at 2 o'clock that next morning before
they were able to get up there. And Brian was just saying today
that they have no bands in their death. You know, they're talking
about how much better off everybody is and how wonderful it is and
how, you know, their reunion in heaven with, you know, aunt
so-and-so and uncle so-and-so. And why have they no bands in
their death? Because they don't know there's
a second death. All they know about is the first death. This
is the second death. This is the death to be concerned
about. Not the first death. Everybody's going to die the
first death. It's the second death that men don't know about. And death and hell were cast
into the lake of fire. This is the second death. Now here's the truth. A man who's
born once dies twice. A man who's born twice dies once. And whosoever was not found written
in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Why? Because
they were judged by God according to their deeds. They were judged
by God according to their deeds. God judges us outside of Christ
according to our deeds that's what's gonna happen we're gonna
we're gonna we're gonna experience the second death and there's
no coming back from that death all but if we're judged in Christ
that's why I said let go back with me to our text be happy
be glad sing for joy why because the Lord himself judges righteously. Now who is the judge exactly? Who is the judge? Well, turn
with me to John chapter five. Scripture is very clear about
who the judge is. Now I know that the Lord Jesus
Christ Himself said, I came not into the world to judge the world,
but that the world by me might be saved. Now that is in reference
to His first coming. That's in reference to His first
coming. He came the first time as a Savior. He's coming the
second time as a judge. John chapter 5, Verse 22, for
the Father judgeth no man, but hath 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. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him
that sent me hath everlasting life. Notice the verb tense there. If you believe, it's because
you have everlasting life. You don't get everlasting life
as a result of believing. Believing is the result of having
everlasting life. And shall not come into condemnation. There is therefore now no condemnation. That's the second death. That's
the second death. That's when God measures all
men by their works and puts them up against the plumb line. The
books are opened and they're cast into the lake of fire. And
here the Lord says, I say unto you, I'm sorry, there's no condemnation,
but is passed, is passed from death unto life. The Lord Jesus
Christ himself gives to his people eternal life, everlasting life. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
the hour is coming and now is when the dead, the spiritually
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 the Son to have life in himself. The Father has given to the Son
the power. All power and all authority has
been given unto me in heaven and on earth. and hath given him authority
to execute judgment also because he is the Son of Man." Now notice
that the Lord said the reason the Father gave the Lord Jesus
Christ judgment is because He is the Son of Man. As the Son
of God, He didn't have to be given judgment by the Father. As the son of God, he possesses
all sovereign right to rule and reign over all men, the living
and the dead. But he earned as the son of man,
the right to stand in judgment first for his people. And then
those who are not found written in the Lamb's book of life. and
suffered the second death. So this one who is executing
judgment is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. In Matthew chapter 25,
the Lord tells us that he's the one who separates the sheep on
his right hand from the goats on his left hand, and says to
the goats, depart from me, you workers of iniquity, because
I never knew you, and says to the sheep, enter into the kingdom
prepared for you. The Lord Jesus Christ ascended
back into glory, took with him the names of those for whom he
lived and died, and prepared for them a kingdom. I go and
prepare a place for you. Where I go, you shall come also. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I'd go and prepare a place for
you. My father's house has many, many dwelling places, mansions,
all rejoice I if I go prepare place for you I'm gonna come
again and I'm gonna receive you unto myself so that where I am
there you may be also now what does the Lord tell us be glad
sing for joy for the Lord Jesus Christ himself judges you righteously
righteously he's not judging us about according to according
to our works in Genesis chapter 18 when Abraham is interceding
with God for Sodom remember he says you know if I find 50 righteous
I'll save it if I goes all the way down I think to 10 and the
Lord agrees I'll save Sodom if you can find 10 righteous well
there was but one righteous and that was Lot And Lot himself
lingered in Sodom, didn't he? And the Lord had to take him
by the hand and drag him out. What a picture of how the Lord
saves each one of his children. And here's what Abraham said,
Shall the Lord slay the righteous with the wicked? Shall not the
judge of the earth do right? Yes. The judge of the earth always
judges righteously. He always does right. He judges
every sin. Every sin of every one of his
children was judged perfectly in the sacrifice that Christ
made on Calvary's cross. Righteousness and peace kissed
each other. Turn with me back to Psalm 67. Let the nations, that's the Gentiles,
that's you and me, be glad. Let the world live in denial
of the second death. Let them make a covenant with
death. Let them say that with hell we're in agreement. We'll
let God judge us. He knows our hearts. We've done
this and that. And God will judge them, as we
saw in Revelation chapter 20, according to their works, the
works that were written in the book. God kept a ledger of everything,
every thought, everything that every man... You want to be judged
by your works? Here they are. Here they are. Do they measure
up to my standard of righteousness? I'm not gonna make any exceptions
to my law. You're either gonna be perfect
or you're gonna be condemned. Let the Gentiles be glad. Oh, we have reason brethren to
sing for joy. We've got a savior. We've got
a Savior who saves to the uttermost, to the uttermost, all that come
to God by Him. He has successfully satisfied
God's justice. He has established perfect righteousness. And we have reason to know that
He, for thou, shall judge the people righteously. Righteously. Now let's take just
a couple of minutes to look at some other passages of Scripture
where that word righteously is used. He judges the people righteously. Turn with me back to Psalm 27. Psalm 27. Yes, God will be our judge, and
He will judge all men, and He will not allow the guilty to
go unpunished. Psalm 27, verse 11. Teach me Thy way, O Lord, and
lead me in," that next word, plain, that's the same word translated,
God shall judge His people righteously. So here the scriptures translate
this word righteously as the word plain. And David's praying
and he said, lead me in a plain path because of my enemies. Lord, show me the perfect righteousness
that I have in the Lord Jesus Christ. Enable me to look to
Him. He's the plain path. He's the one who has established
all righteousness. And who are our enemies? It's
our sin. It's our sin that condemns us. And the law speaks up against
all sin. And the Savior says, the law
has been silenced. The law has nothing to say. Why? Because righteousness and peace
have kissed each other. Truth and justice have met together. Look at Psalm 45 verse six. We're not asking God to lower
the bar for us. Oh no, he wouldn't do it. He
won't do it. God's not going to lower the
bar for anybody. God's not going to judge anyone based on a curve.
God's not going to take into consideration your circumstances
and say, well, I'm going to let you get by with that one because
of your special, unique situation. No, He's going to execute perfect
righteousness and judgment according to His law. Psalm 46, 45, verse 6, thy throne,
O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of thy kingdom is
a right scepter. So we see in Psalm 27 that the
word righteously, which is the means by which God, the standard
by which God judges is translated plain, a plain path. That's that
straight path that the Lord Jesus Christ walked. And here we see
that it's translated a right scepter. Now a scepter is the
symbol of authority. And God says, I'm going to judge
my people by a right scepter. And just as King Ahasuerus stuck
out his scepter when Esther came in to intercede on behalf of
the children of Israel, so the father stuck out his scepter
to his son, interceding on behalf of his people. A right scepter. Turn with me to Psalm 143. Psalm
143. This is our, this is our reason
for rejoicing. This is our reason for being
glad. Is that God shall judge righteously. He shall judge according to a
plain path. He shall judge according to a
right scepter. And in Psalm 143 at verse 10,
teach me to do thy will for thou art my God, thy spirit is good,
lead me in the land of uprightness. There it is, the word uprightness
is the same word translated, he shall judge his people righteously. Lead me in the land of uprightness. Well, that's the land where the
Lord Jesus Christ reigns. He's the upright one. Lead me
to look to him for all the hope of my righteousness before God. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
11. Isaiah 11. This is the standard by which
God is judging. We rejoice, sing for joy, and
are glad that God hasn't made an exception. He's judged His
people righteously. He's judged them according to
a plain path. He's judged them according to
a right scepter. All of His righteousness has
been fulfilled in the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ, who
was not just obedient to the law, but was obedient even unto
death, bearing the sins of his people. Isaiah chapter 11 verse
4, but with righteousness shall he judge the poor and reprove
with equity. That word equity is the same
word translated shall judge his people righteously in Isaiah
chapter and Psalm 67 verse four equity. Now, what is, what is
the script? How does the descriptor describe
that which men hope in for their righteousness before God in equity
in equity doesn't measure up. Here, God says, I'm going to
judge the poor in equity. I'm going to mete out to them
a perfect measure, a perfect measure, and they're going to
be judged in equity for the meek of the earth. And he shall smite
the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of
his lips shall he slay the wicked. We want God to judge righteously,
don't we? God's not going to change his
character. He's not going to lower his standard.
He's going to judge all men. He will not, he will not overlook
one single sin. And that's our reason for rejoicing.
That's our reason for rejoicing. You see, if those who say, I
want God to be my judge, believed that God was going to judge them
based on a perfect standard, and he's going to use every work
that they ever did as judgment against them, they couldn't rejoice
in that. They couldn't. In other words,
if they knew what they were submitting to when they said, Lord, we've
done many wonderful works in thy name, they wouldn't be able
to rejoice. We rejoice in knowing that God
judges his people righteously. We're not asking for God to make
an exception. We're not asking for God to overlook
our sin. We're looking to the Lord Jesus
Christ as the one who put away our sin. And we're looking to
him for all our righteousness before God. If you have your Bibles open to
Isaiah, turn with me to Isaiah 40. Isaiah 40. Verse 4, every valley shall be
exalted. Now those are the ones that are
humbled. Those that are humbled to confess
that they're sinners. Those that have been brought
to see that they have no righteousness before God and they're completely
dependent upon Christ. They've been made low. Blessed
are they who mourn. who mourn, and every mountain
and hill shall be made low. All the self-righteous and proud
shall be brought down, and all the humbled shall be exalted."
Exalted to what? Exalted to sonship. To sonship. We're made sons and daughters
of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We're part of the royal
family. That's why the Lord's saying
rejoice, be glad, sing for joy. And the crooked shall be made
straight and the rough places plain. There it is again, plain. An even, even truthful place. That's the word translated righteously
in our text. Go back with me to Psalm 67 and
we'll close. Psalm 67. This is such a blessing, brethren. Oh, let the nations, let the
Gentiles, let those who were not part of the commonwealth
of Israel, Let those who were exiled out into the world, who
had no knowledge of God unless God came to them, let the nations
be glad and sing for joy. For thou, the Lord Jesus Christ,
shall judge His people righteously. He's going to judge them plainly.
He's going to judge them with the right scepter. He's going
to judge them according to His righteous judgments. And here's the second reason
for rejoicing. I close with this. We dealt with
this Sunday in great detail. And he shall govern the nations. He shall govern the nations.
Jerry, you know what that means. The heart of the king is in the
hands of the Lord and He leadeth it, He maketh it to go withersoever
He wills. He governs over the nations,
child of God. He reigns over not just the living
but over the dead. He's working all things according
to His purpose for the salvation of His people. He governs He
rules, he leads the nations, all the nations, all the peoples
of this world are led by God to show his people that he is
a righteous judge who judges righteously and gives his children
reasons to rejoice in knowing that he executed all of his judgment
against their sin bearer, their substitute, their advocate, their
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, their surety, the one who bore
all their sins and suffered the full wrath of God's justice,
the judgment of God. Who did he do those for? Who
did he do that for? Those found written in the Lamb's
Book of Life. You say, well, how do I know
if I'm written in the Lamb's Book of Life? How do I know? Because I know that I don't want
God to judge me based on anything I've done. If God judges me by
the best thing I've ever done, I'm going to hell for it. But
I want Him to judge righteously. I don't want Him to make an exception
for me. I want Him to judge me according
to the judgment that's already been executed at Calvary's cross. I'm looking to what the Lord
Jesus Christ did as the only hope of my judgment before God. That's just faith. Faith is the
evidence. That's how I know that my name's
in the Lamb's Book of Life. The rest of the world's not looking
to Christ for their justice, their judgment before God. They're
looking to something they've done, a decision they've made,
a work they've performed, a motive that they've had, you know, whatever,
whatever. God's people know that God's
holy, God's just, God's not gonna overlook one single sin. And
the only hope they have of standing in the presence of a holy God
is that Christ bore all their sins and put them away and that
he's ruling the nations for their good and for their salvation. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we rejoice and are glad and sing for joy in knowing that you did
not sacrifice your justice in order to save your people. But
that our Savior, thy darling and dear son, bore all our sins
and put them away. Thank you for the faith that
enables us to rest our hope in him and to believe that he was
successful in what he came to do. He is our only hope and our
only salvation. For it's in his name we pray. Amen. Brother Tom. 186, let's stand
together, 186. The church's one foundation is
Jesus Christ her Lord. She is his new creation by water
and the Word. From heaven he came and sought
her to be his holy bride. With his own blood he bought
her and for her life he died. ? Elect from every nation ? Yet
one o'er all the earth ? Her charter of salvation ? One Lord,
one faith, one birth ? One holy name she blesses ? Partakes one
holy food And to one hope she presses With every grace endued
Mid toil and tribulation and tumult of her war, she waits
the consummation of peace forevermore. Till with a vision glorious,
her longing eyes are blessed. and the great church victorious
shall be the church at rest. ? Yet she on earth hath union
? ? With God the three in one ? ? And mystic sweet communion
? ? With those whose rest is one ? ? O happy ones and holy
? ? Lord give us grace that we ? Like them the meek and lowly
on high may dwell with thee. Hey, you doing all right?