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. If you would really be in any
time of trouble, a comforter to me. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me the old, old story of
Jesus and His blood. 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. That's all I want to hear. All
I want to hear, pray the Lord will keep us faithful
to just keep telling the same old story over and over again. How prone we are to forget. And
to wonder. How needy we are to hear about
our Savior. The one who successfully redeemed
his people. Of their sins. We're going to be in Psalm 50
this morning for the first hour. I've titled this message, God
is Judge. God is Judge. I've had men say to me in the
past, don't judge me, I'll let God be my judge. Truth is, God's gonna be every
single one of our judge, every one of us. he's the judge we
need to be concerned about not the judgments of men but God's
judgment and here's the truth about God's judgment he's gonna
judge everybody and everyone he judges is going to receive
one of two scores either you're gonna make a hundred or you're
gonna make a zero that's it God doesn't grade on a curve there's
no in-between God's gonna judge every man to be perfect or to
be zero, unrighteous. By what standard does God make
His judgments? This is that passage of scripture
that we quote often, verse 21, where the Lord said, Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a
one as myself. You thought that I was like you,
but I'm not like you. I'm not like you in any way.
I'm holy, and I am the judge. So I hope the Lord will be pleased
to meet with us this morning and encourage our hearts to know
that God has judged his people in Christ, put away their sins
once and for all, and that every single one of them has received
by his grace a 100. A 100. Let's bow together and
ask the Lord's blessings on our time. Our merciful Heavenly Father, we're thankful that once again
you've brought us here to this place. We're thankful for the
promise of thy presence. We're thankful for the hope of
salvation that you've given to us and our dear son. Lord, how
we hope that you would enable us now in this hour to put away
all those things that would so easily distract us and enable
us to set our affections on Christ. Turn us away from the worldly
cares and concerns, Lord, that we all face and give us an interest
for our soul's sake in thy dear son. Send your spirit in power
and cause us, Lord, to rest all the hope of our salvation on
the judgment that you exercised when you were pleased to make
your son an offering for sin. We ask it in his name. Amen. In Exodus chapter 28, the Lord
tells Moses about the dress that Aaron was to wear as a representative
of the Lord Jesus Christ, our high priest, when he went into
the holies of holies and made the sacrifice of the blood offering
on the mercy seat. And one of the articles of Aaron's
clothing was what the scripture refers to as a miter. It was
a headpiece and across the front of the miter, it was to read
holiness unto our Lord for Aaron must bear the iniquity of the
holy things. Think about that with me for
a moment. Aaron must bear the iniquity of the holy things. Now what we're doing right now
is a holy thing. We've come here together, we've asked God's blessings,
we've opened God's Word, we are praying and hoping that the Lord
is going to speak to our hearts and He's going to reveal Himself.
This is a holy thing. Oh, but we don't want to be judged
by it, do we? We don't want to be. In other words, the best
thing that we do, the most spiritual thing that we do, the Lord Jesus
Christ as our Aaron must bear the iniquity of the holy things
in order for those things to be acceptable to God. Our most sincere effort, our
most spiritual times are fraught with our sin. We don't want to
be judged. If we could take the one moment
in our life when we were most sincere, most broken, most genuine,
most spiritual, and God judged us for that, we'd get a zero. We'd get a zero. I've made this quote before,
Jonathan Edwards once said that the tears of repentance must
be washed in the blood of Christ in order to be acceptable to
God. That's how perfect God's judgments
are. God's not going to allow one
sin to go unpunished and a person who would say I won't be judged by man, I'll
just let God be my judge. You'd rather have man be your
judge. You'd rather have man be your judge. Unless God's judging
you in Christ. Alright, let's look at this passage
of scripture. the mighty God, the all-powerful
sovereign, the God who rules and reigns all things. By the power of His word, He
holds all things together, the God with whom we all must do. That's the God that's about to
speak. This is not a God that's fashioned
after the likeness of man. This is the God who is the mighty
God, even the Lord. Oh, men make fools of themselves
when they talk about Jesus making Lord of their life, making Jesus
Lord of their life, don't they? He is Lord. He is Lord. And He's Lord of your life and
He's Lord of my life, whether we believe Him or not, whether
we bow to Him or not, He reigns sovereign over the armies of
heaven and over all the inhabitants of the earth. And no man can
say unto him, what doest thou? He's the Lord, the mighty God,
even the Lord hath spoken. Aren't you glad that he hath
spoken? Now that's a good thing. That's a good thing. God has
spoken. And in his speaking, he has told
us the standard by which he will judge all men. So, we can know
the truth if we're enabled by the Spirit of God to hear what
God has said. Let him who have ears hear what
the Lord has said unto the churches. And he's called the earth from
the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof. And now here,
This is reminiscent of what the Lord says in Isaiah chapter 1
when He says, when He calls all the angels of heaven to be witness
to His judgments. So this is the Lord calling all
of His creation into His court, into His divine court. And He
says, you witness the judgments that I'm going to make because
my judgments are true. My judgments are true and my
judgments are faithful. Verse two, out of Zion. Now we saw this last Sunday from
Psalm 48 when we looked at the city of God. Now the church is
referred to as Zion. Zion, that place of worship,
a place of sacrifice, the place where the gospel, the only place,
the only place where the gospel of God's free grace is declared
the only place where men have any hope of finding out the standard
by which God judges and be found in Him." And so he says, out
of Zion, the perfection of beauty. Say, is the Lord talking about
me? Yeah. Yes, He is. Yes, He is. He's talking about his church.
He's talking about that beautiful bride that he's made comely by
his comeliness. He's talking about that gathering
of believers that declare the perfection of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so he says, out of Zion,
the perfection of beauty, God hath shined. And this is the
only place God's shining. The only place where his perfection,
the perfection of his beauty, is made clear to those who need
to know about the judgment of God. Our God shall come and shall
not keep silent. A fire shall devour before him
and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. Lot had to be taken from Sodom
before the fire of God's wrath fell and consumed that city.
God's church is going to be taken out of this world. They're going
to be taken out of this world before the fire of God falls
and this tempestuous fire is going to consume all of God's
enemies. He shall call to the heavens
from above and to the earth that he may judge his people. He may judge His people. God's
going to judge. He's going to judge His church
first. He'll judge His church first. He's going to judge them
in Christ and they're going to find acceptance with God in being
made whole, being made perfect, being made righteous. God made
Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, to be made sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." Now there's the
hope for the child of God. God took out the sword of his
wrath. This fire, remember the fire that fell from heaven on
Mount Carmel when Elijah was making the sacrifice with the
prophets of Baal and he exposed the foodlessness of the prophets
of Baal. And then he cried out for God to rain fire, and it
did. The fire of God fell and consumed
the sacrifice. And as the sacrifice was being
consumed, the sacrifice consumed the fire. It quenched the fire.
And the fire of God's wrath was put out. That's a picture of
what happened on Calvary's cross, isn't it? The Lord Jesus Christ
is our sacrifice. The fire of God's wrath fell
upon him. This is that tempestuous fire It's going to fall twice. It fell once on Mount Calvary
2,000 years ago, and it will fall again on this earth for
all those that are found outside of Christ. Gather my saints together unto
me. That's what we're doing right now, isn't it? We're preaching
the gospel of God's free grace in the glorious person and accomplished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ, believing that God's sheep are
going to hear his voice. And they're going to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And they're going to find such
comfort and hope in knowing that all of their sin was put away
by the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary's cross. And they're
going to fear the judgment of God. They'll fear the judgment
of God. Gather my saints together unto
me, those that have. I struggled with this verse for
some time and I looked at the original language and tried to
understand it better. Let me give you a better understanding
of this verse than what we have in our King James. Gather my
saints together, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice. Now the literal translation of
that verse is those who have entered into my covenant by sacrifice. those who have entered in to
my covenant by sacrifice. You see, a covenant is a promise. A covenant is a promise. And
in Isaiah chapter 28, the Lord speaking to Israel says, I spoke
to you in my word and I taught you in my word, line upon line,
precept upon precept, here a little, there a little. But to you, it
was nothing more than just a little bit here and a little bit there. And you took the word of God
and you twisted it. You perverted the meaning of
it. And you said, you said, I will make a covenant with God. I will
make a covenant with God. Turn, turn me to that passage,
Isaiah chapter 28. Verse 14, wherefore hear the
word of the Lord, ye scornful men that rule this people which
is in Jerusalem, because you have said, we have made a covenant
with death, and with hell we are at agreement. When the overflowing
scourge shall pass through, it shall not come upon us, for we
have made lies our refuge, and under falsehoods we have hid
ourselves. What a description of man-made
religion. We've made a covenant. We've
made a promise to God. And the hope of our salvation
is based on this commitment that we have made to God. And we're
not going to worry about the judgment of God. We're not going
to worry about the fire of God's wrath, this tempestuous fire
that's going to come, because we're good to go. We've made
lives our refuge. Therefore, thus saith the Lord
God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried
stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth
shall not make haste. You know who that is, the cornerstone,
the tried stone, the sure foundation. the one upon which the entire
church is built, the one upon which we must stand. When the overflowing scourge
comes, it will not overtake those who are standing on the rock.
Judgment also will I lay to the line. Now, here's a picture of
a plumb line. The Lord says, I'm going to hang
the plumb line and that plumb line is going to be perfectly
vertical. and everything's going to be
judged to that plumb line. And if you're not found in Christ,
that plumb line is the Lord Jesus Christ, and if you're not found
in Him, you're going to be like a teetering wall that's been
daubed with undaubed mortar. It's about to fall, and when
it falls, it's going to destroy everyone that's leaning on it.
Judgment will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet,
and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the water
shall overflow the hiding place, and your covenant, your covenant
with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell
shall not stand when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then
you shall be trodden down by it. Your covenant. The covenant that
man has made, a promise that man has made with God will not
stand. It will not stand. The only covenant
that's going to stand is that eternal covenant. The eternal
covenant of grace was made between God and God. When God the Father
made a promise to the Son to choose for Him a bride, and elect
for him a particular people. When God the Son entered into
that covenant promise with the Father to shed his precious blood
for the redemption of his bride. And when God the Holy Spirit
entered into that covenant with God the Father and God the Son
promising that he would come in power and open the eyes of
their understanding and make them to believe. Cause them to
be willing in the day of his power. election, redemption,
regeneration. That's a covenant that was made
by God before Adam was ever created, before the fall, before you and
I ever came on the scene. And so, go back with me. This is a promise for those who
have entered into my covenant by sacrifice. There's no getting
in this covenant apart from the sacrifice. When God gave to Moses in Exodus
chapter 34 the law and the people said we will do everything that
God said and in the next verse Moses made a blood sacrifice. You're not going to enter into
this covenant with God. You're not going to be able to
keep God's law outside of this blood sacrifice. the Lord Jesus
Christ, the only one that ever did that. And so, gather my saints, my holy ones. This is the 100 percenters. Are you going to make 100 percent
when God comes to grade your paper? This is what the word saint means.
If we're found in Him, if we're found in Him, we're going to
make 100%. There's only two scores that
God gives in His judgments, 100% and zero. That's it. And so He says, gather my saints,
those holy ones, those separated ones, those whom I have put in
my Son, those who are part of my covenant and have entered
into my covenant by sacrifice. not their sacrifice, but by the
sacrifice of that lamb that is without spot and without blemish.
How do I know if I'm in this covenant? How do I know? I'm looking to the Lord Jesus
Christ alone for all the hope of my acceptance before God.
I have nothing outside of him to offer God, nothing. I've not made a promise. I've
not made a covenant with death. or with hell, I'm in agreement,
that covenant's going to be disannulled, that covenant's going to be overflowed
with the wrath and judgment of God. I'm trusting that the fiery
wrath of God that fell on Calvary's cross 2,000 years ago is the
only hope of mine. And if that didn't do it, I have
no other place to, I've got no hope, got no hope. gather my saints together unto
me, those who have entered into my covenant by sacrifice, and
the heavens shall declare His righteousness, for God is Judge
Himself." The heavens, the Spirit of God, shall declare His righteousness. The angels shall declare His
righteousness. the declaration of the gospel
shall declare his righteousness. Now I remind you again in Jeremiah
chapter 23 and his name shall be called the Lord our righteousness
and then in Jeremiah chapter 33 and she and she shall be called
the Lord our righteousness. You see if we're If we're found
in Him not having our own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
righteousness which is by the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus
Christ, then God judges us 100% perfect, sinless in my sight. The heaven shall declare His
righteousness for God is judge Himself. God's the judge. He's going to judge every one
of us. And we're going to be judged on that plummet line,
aren't we? That standard of righteousness,
the perfect law of God, and we're either going to be found in Christ
or we're going to be found outside of Christ. Verse 7, here, O my people, and
I will speak, O Israel, I will testify against thee, I am God,
even by God. I will not reprove thee for thy
sacrifices. I'm not going to judge you based
on the sacrifices that you've made. That's what he's saying
there. Your judgment, this whole passage
is talking about God being our judge and God saying now, I'm
not gonna judge you based on the sacrifices that you have
made. Now that's what men are hoping.
Men are hoping that, you know, I've made these sacrifices and
I've made these commitments and I've made these promises and
I've done this and I've done that and I'm hoping that God's
going to take that into consideration. He's going to judge me based
on that. God says, I'm not going to judge you for your sacrifices
or for your burnt offerings that you have made continually before
me. I will take no bullocks out of
thy house, nor he goats out of thy folds, for every beast of
the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills." The hills are mine too. Everything's
mine. I'm not going to judge you based
on some sacrifice or commitment that you have made. I know all the fowls of the mountains
and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I
would not tell thee, for the world is mine and the fullest
thereof." Men think God is in need of something from them in
order for them to have acceptance with God. Now, that's just the
natural mindset. Men are by nature works-oriented. They just are convinced that
if I do the right things, not make the right sacrifices and
I'm spiritual and religious and I avoid certain things that that
that God's gonna reward me for all and God's making it clear
this is not the standard by which I'm going to judge you I'm not
judging you by your sacrifices I'm not judging you by anything
that you do or don't do that's not my standard of judgment that's
man's standard of judgment Well, I eat the flesh of bulls or drink
the blood of goats. Offer unto God thanksgiving. Now, that's what faith does.
Faith thanks God for the sacrifice that He made, for the covenant
that He made, for the salvation that He has provided. And all
faith does, all faith can do is express thanksgiving to God. Offer unto God thanksgiving and
pay thy vows unto the Most High. Now, turn with me to Psalm 22,
verse 25, please. Psalm 22. Verse 25, I will praise
thee I'm sorry, my praise shall be
of thee in the great congregation. I will pay my vows before him,
before them that fear him. Now who's speaking here? I will pay my vows before them
that fear him. Now turn with me to Psalm 116.
Psalm 116. And look at verse 14. I will pay my vows unto the Lord
now in the presence of all His people. Look at verse 18. I will
pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all His people. Now the Lord Jesus Christ made
a vow to the Father in the covenant of grace, that covenant that
we've already spoken of, the covenant that took place with
God before the foundation of the world. The Lord Jesus Christ
promised to the Father to redeem his blood, to shed his precious
blood, to satisfy the demands of God's holy law, and to sacrifice
himself to the Father for payment of their sin. That was the vow. And the Lord speaking in these
Psalms saying, I will pay my vows before the people in the
presence of the Lord. They're going to see the promise
that I've made to the father. That's what Judah was saying
to his father Israel when He was pleading with him to allow
them to take Benjamin back to Egypt to get more supplies because
Joseph had already told him, don't come back without Benjamin.
And Judah said to his father, Israel, Jacob didn't want to
send Benjamin. So I've already lost Joseph and
I'm not gonna lose Benjamin. And you remember what Judah said? Judas said, I will be surety
for him. Let me bear the blame forever
if I fail to bring him back. Now that's the Lord Jesus Christ
speaking to the Father. I will be surety for them. I
will do everything necessary for their salvation. And Father,
I will bear the blame myself if I don't bring every single
one of them back. Is it possible for the Lord Jesus Christ to
be blamed for not having succeeded in what the Father sent him to
do? And yet, that's the message of
salvation that you hear in the world, isn't it? God loves everybody. Christ died for everybody. God
wants everybody to be saved. But bless his heart, he just
couldn't get it done. He failed. He failed. He's dependent on you to let
him have his way. I will pay my vows to the Lord
in the presence of the people. And that's exactly what the Lord
Jesus Christ did on Calvary's cross. He paid his vows to the
Father. And so now when the Lord is saying,
go back with me to our Psalm, Psalm 50, the judgment of God, Verse 14, offer unto God thanksgiving
and pay thy vows unto the Most High. Now, how is it that you
and I pay our vows? How is it that we pay our vows
to the Most High? Looking in faith to the one who
did pay his vows. He paid my vows. He paid all
my promises, and call upon me in the day of trouble, and I
will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." I'm going to get
all the glory. When you listen to a message
of salvation, there's just one simple question you have to ask.
Out of everything that they said, who gets all the glory for the
saving of a sinner? Who gets all the glory? Did man
have something to do with it? Did he have some contribution
or some participation? Or did God do it all by himself? He gets all the glory, doesn't
he? Man doesn't want to give all the glory to God. He wants
to take some glory to himself. And so, call upon me in the day
of trouble. Are you in trouble? If God's made you to be a sinner,
you're in trouble. And you're reminded of your trouble
every day, aren't you? There's a little article in your
bulletin that I wrote in response to a quote that someone sent
me that you can tell the measure of a man not in the good times
but in the bad times. And I thought, that's not true. That's not true. You can tell
the true nature of a man in the good times. But when things go
bad, he becomes temporarily religious, doesn't he? He becomes temporarily
prayerful. He becomes temporarily humble. And yet you take away the trouble
and you find out what his true nature is. Proud, independent,
self-righteous. And that's the reason, brethren,
that God keeps his children in trouble all the time. All the time. He makes us dependent, humble,
prayerful before Him all the time because we're always in
trouble. Not with our circumstances. Thank
the Lord we don't have horrible circumstances all the time. But
even when the circumstances are good, we've still got our sin,
don't we? We're constantly having to look
to Christ to take away our sin. call upon me in the day of trouble,
and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." Here's
the means by which I'm going to judge my people. But unto
the wicked, God saith, what hast thou to do to declare my statutes,
or that thou should take my covenant in thy mouth? Now the wicked
here clearly are the religious. What are you doing taking my
word in your mouth? What are you doing calling yourself
a Christian? What are you doing calling my covenant and using
my name? Seeing thou hatest instruction
and casteth my words behind thee? You hate my gospel? You don't
believe my word? I dare you. call upon my statutes. When thou sawest a thief, then
thou consentest with him and hast been partakers with adulterers.
Now everybody knows that stealing is wrong and that adultery is
wrong. So what is he talking about here?
He's talking about robbing from God, his glory in salvation and
getting in bed with another man. spiritual adultery and spiritual
thievery. It's much worse, much worse than
the physical. Thou givest thy mouth to evil
and thy tongue frameth deceit. You just tell lies about God.
We've made, didn't we see that in Isaiah chapter 28? We've made
lies our refuge. You twist the word of God, Thou
sittest and speaketh against thy brother, thou slandereth
thine own mother's son. They speak evil against God's
people. These things hast thou done,
and I kept silent. Thou thoughtest that I was altogether
such a one as thyself, but I will judge thee, reprove thee, and
set them in order before thine eyes. I'm going to show you the
truth. Now consider this, ye that forget
God, lest I tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver. Whoso offereth praise, glorifieth
me. And to him that ordereth his
conversation aright, will I show the salvation of God. He that looks to Christ, I will
show my salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. He's going to judge all men,
all men. Yes, God will be our judge and
not one sin will go unpunished. There is a tempestuous fire that
comes out of the throne of God that will destroy this world.
and all those outside of Christ, and then there's that fire that
fell from heaven on Calvary's cross. Those who are found in Him are
going to be graded, they're going to be judged by God perfect,
100% sinless. That's the standard
of God's judgment. I said, I'm not like you. You
thought that I was altogether as thyself, but I'm not like
you. I don't judge on a curve. I don't give any breaks. This is it. Every single person
is going to be judged by God. They're going to get a zero.
Or they're going to get 100. And God be our judge and might
we be found in Christ. Alright, let's take a break. Okay.