Piano player here for a change. Well, good evening, everyone.
We're going to open tonight's service with hymn number 186
from the Hardback Temple, number 186, The Church's One Foundation
is Jesus Christ, Her Lord. Let's all stand together. Number
186. you 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 for 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 the 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 won ? O happy ones and holy ? Lord give us
grace that we Like them, the meek and lowly, on high may dwell
with thee. Please be seated. Good evening. It's amazing to
me how We were able to sing that hymn that we just sang before we knew Christ. I mean, that hymn is so clear.
So clear, so wonderful. And I don't know what I thought
before. Turn with me, if you will, please,
in your Bibles to Isaiah 42. Isaiah 42. If I could ask some of the young
men after the service to move the baptistry over here, we're
going to have baptism Sunday. So, I'm looking forward to that. Verse 18. Hear ye deaf. Lord, I am deaf. That hymn we
just sang is evidence of that, isn't it? We could say those
words and we didn't hear. here you deaf and look you blind
that you may see who is blind but my servant or deaf now before
we go any further look at verse one of that same chapter behold
my servant whom I uphold so when the Lord says in verse 19 who
is blind but my servant who's he talking about He's talking
about Christ, that Christ is blind, and where are you going?
Who is blind but my servant, or deaf as my messenger that
I sent? Who is blind as he that is perfect,
and blind as the Lord's servant? Seeing many things, but thou
observest not. Opening the ears, but he heareth
not. I'm so thankful for that. The Lord is blind when it comes
to our sin. That's a mystery, but it's a
glorious one, isn't it? The Lord is well pleased for
his righteousness sake. He will magnify the law and make
it honorable. And that's what he did. We are putting my mother in hospice
tonight. And she has moments where she's
lucid. And I just covet your prayers
that maybe in one of those moments, the Lord will give her some understanding.
Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, We are by nature blind and deaf. We come before your throne of
grace, poor and needy. And we ask, Lord, that you would
give us eyes to see and ears to hear. For we know that the
hearing ear and the seeing eye is of you. Oh, Lord, create them
in our hearts. Give us grace to see Christ,
to set our affections on him. to be able to trust Him with
all of our hearts. And oh, how thankful we are that
His work, His atoning work on Calvary's cross was so perfect
that you are able to say, I remember your sins no more. Oh, Lord, comfort our hearts
with that truth, for we ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's stand again together. We'll
sing hymn number two from your gospel hymns hymnal. Hymn number
two. Lord, we come before thee now. At thy feet we humbly bow. Oh, do not our suit disdain. Shall we seek thee Lord, on Thee our souls depend,
In compassion now descend. Fill our hearts with Thy rich
grace, Tune our lips to sing Thy praise. In thine own appointed way, Now
we seek thee, here we stay. Lord, we know not how to go Till
a blessing thou bestow. Send the message from thy word
that may joy and peace afford. Let thy spirit now impart Christ's
salvation to each heart. Please be seated. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Isaiah 32? Isaiah 32. I've titled this message,
Oh, Worship the King. Worship the King. Bow before
Him. That's a work of grace in the
heart. We worship in part. We see in part. One day we'll
see Him as He is. Worship him in the fullness of
his glory, but the Lord enables his children right now to worship
him and That's what Isaiah is talking about here when he says
behold Behold put everything else aside This is deserving
of your full undivided attention Behold, the Lord said, behold,
I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep. We shall
be changed as in the twinkling of an eye. Behold, I lay in Zion a stone,
a stumbling stone, a rock of a fence. The natural man won't
behold Christ. When Pilate brought our Lord
before that bloodthirsty crowd, he said, behold the man. He didn't
know what he was saying, but that's exactly what we do. We
behold him. Oh Lord, give us eyes to see.
He goes on in verse three, he says, the eyes of them that see
shall not be dim. Lord, give us eyes to see Christ,
to set our affections on him. Job said, behold, behold, I see
something I've never seen before. I am Bile. Oh, that the Lord
would put spiritual blinders on our eyes, enable us to shut
out those things that would distract us from Him, and behold Christ. Behold the man. David said, behold,
behold. I was shapen in iniquity and
in sin did my mother conceive me. I never saw it before, but
oh, I see it now. My eyes are not dim. The Lord has shown me His glory,
and in showing me His glory, He's revealed to me my sinfulness
before Him. Behold, the Lord is calling on
us to behold what He commands He must provide. And so when
we hear Him say to us, behold, look, Look Lord, I'm gonna have
to have eyes to see if I'm gonna look you're going to have to
enable me to look Same as when the Lord calls on us to believe
or to repent or to flee Lord, you're gonna have to provide
for me the things that you require of me and so he says behold behold
Behold what? behold King a King in Psalm 2 verse
6 I have set my king upon My holy hill This king is the Lord
Jesus Christ And as a king he reigns sovereign. Oh, he's worthy
of our worship, isn't he? We this is this is not a king
that's running for office It's not a king that's begging for
boats This is a king who reigns sovereign over the armies of
heaven and over all the inhabitants of men. He reigns sovereign over
the affairs of this world. In Providence, he reigns sovereign. He's absolutely sovereign. He's an omnipotent ruler. There's no voting. There's no
discussion, not when you're worshiping the king. There's no objections. You just bow and worship him
for who he is. Turn to me to Psalm 72, Psalm
72, yes. Verse one. Give the king thy judgments,
O God, and thy righteousness unto the king's son. He shall
judge thy people with righteousness and thy poor with judgment. The mountains shall bring peace
to the people and the little hills by righteousness. He shall
judge the poor of the people and he shall save the children
of the needy. Shall break in pieces the oppressors He's not threatened by the unbelief
of man He sets up on his high here on his high throne turn
to me to Psalm Psalm 2 Psalm 2 verse 1 And we've just gone through an
election in this country and And I'm what I'm trying to say
to you right now is that our God is king. He's not. And, and yeah, there's just like
in our elections that we just went through. There's a whole
lot of folks in our country that aren't going to submit to the
results of that election. Um, and there's a lot of folks
that aren't going to submit to the reign of Christ, but unlike
elected officials, he's not defeated by their unbelief. Look what
he says, why did the heathen rage and the people imagine a
bane thing? Why do they imagine emptiness
in their rebellion against God? The kings of the earth set themselves
and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against
his anointed saying, let us break their bands of sundering, cast
away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heaven
shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision. Yet I have set my king upon my
holy hill in Zion. Behold the king. The king reigneth. And in Zion, he's worshipped. He's not resisted. He just bowed to. I pray the Lord
will put into our hearts a spirit of worship a spirit of submission
a spirit of humility before our king and that will bow before
him and Worship him Revelation chapter 4 Revelation chapter 4 verse 10
and the 4 and the 20 elders fell down before him that sat on the
throne and Worshipped him that liveth forever and ever and cast
their crowns before the throne saying thou art worthy O Lord
to receive glory and honor and power for thou hast created all
things and Created all things and for thy pleasure they are
and were created And those that God has saved Rejoice in that
they look forward to that day when they'll join that crowd
in glory Worshipping him without any distractions Go back with me to our text Behold, a king shall reign in
righteousness. In righteousness. That's how
he reigns. Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God is that Israel might be saved. And I bear them
record that they have a zeal for God, but not according to
knowledge. For they are ignorant of God's
righteousness, going about trying to establish their own righteousness. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. He reigns in
righteousness. He's made, as we just read in
Isaiah, he has made the law honorable. He has satisfied its every demand. Oh, what a king to be worshipped.
Turn with me to that passage we were just quoting from in
Romans chapter 10. Verse 5, for Moses described
that the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which
doeth these things shall live by them. If you're going to present
any of your righteousness before God for the hope of your salvation,
you've got to be faithful in keeping the whole law, and not
just in outward behavior. What did that rich young ruler
say? Lord, I've done these things from my youth. He didn't know
that he had broken every one of God's laws. Just like you
have and just like I have. So Moses describes the righteousness
that comes from the law. The man that's gonna live by
those laws, he's gotta live by all of them. But the righteousness
which is of faith, that's looking to Christ. Speaketh on this wise,
say not in thine heart who shall ascend up into heaven to bring
Christ down from above. Don't even think it. Don't even
have that thought. What can I do to make Christ
come down to save me? Why not ask that question? Because
you can't do anything. Or who shall descend into the
deep? That is to bring Christ again
from the dead. What can I do to make the death
of Christ effectual for me? don't even think it, perish the
thought. For what saith it, the word is
nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart, that is the word
of faith which we preach. We preach the faithfulness of
the Lord Jesus Christ, and we call on men to put their hope
in him and in his righteousness, and that's faith. that if thou
shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe
in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead thou shalt
be saved for with the heart man believeth under righteousness
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation for the
scriptures say is whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed for
there's no difference there's no difference between the Jew
The pagan, the religious person, or the Greek, the pagan, the
irreligious person, for the same Lord over all is rich upon all
them that call upon Him. What is the requirement? Lord,
I'm poor. I don't have anything. I'm needy. I can't do anything. All I can
do is look to Christ, and Lord, that you're gonna have to give
me. You're gonna have to give me the faith to do that. For
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Lord, I've got no place else
to go. Go back with me to our text,
Isaiah chapter 32. Where does the Lord Jesus Christ
reign? Well, He reigns over all spiritual
powers. God's given Him preeminence over
the armies of heaven, the scripture says. Satan himself is subject
to the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember the story of Job.
Satan is God's Satan. He has to go before his throne
in order to get permission for whatever he's whatever he does
in this world God gives him permission to do So he reigns over the evil
spirits of this world He reigns over all the affairs
of men large and small Everything in Providence He's recognized
for his reign in the church, in Zion. The world doesn't see
him reigning. They don't see him sitting upon
his high throne, but God's people do, and they bow to him. He reigns in the hearts of his
children. They're brought time and time
and time again to bow their hearts, their wills, their spirits to
him. Lord, I've got to have you and
all I know to do is worship you. He reigns in righteousness. He reigns in heaven. We read
that from Revelation chapter 4. We're the 4 and 20 elders,
that's the church. They were bowing down before
him in praise, thou art worthy to receive glory and honor and
power for thou has created all things and for thy good pleasure
they are and were created. So here Isaiah says, behold,
look, there's a king, there's a king. He's not like the politicians
of our generation, of our country, or of anybody in this world.
He reigns sovereign. And God's people love it that
way. Behold, a king shall reign in
righteousness, And look at the rest of this verse. And princes
shall rule in judgment. Now who is a prince? The prince
is a child of a king. Isn't that true? So now he's
talking about his church. And so those who are able by
the grace of God to bow and worship the king, they They make the same judgments
about things that he makes. They love the things he loves
and they hate the things that he hates. And they make judgments
about what he does in providence. And they know that here's the
judgment they make. Lord, whatever you do is right.
It's right. It's good. It might not be easy. No, don't wait when God when
God's pleased to make things easy for you in his providence
Don't say well God was merciful or God was he's always merciful. He's always gracious He everything
but sometimes he's easy, isn't he Lord? I want you to be easy
on me God's people make that judgment.
They're always in agreement with the king and And they know that
whatever happens, whatever happens, there's only one boat that counted
last night. Only one boat that counted. And
had it gone the other way, we would still be saying, Lord,
what you do is, whatever you do, whatever you do is right. In creation, The princes make
judgment. What is the judgment we make
about creation? Well, we judge that the scripture
is faithful in describing creation for what it is. It's not a big
bang theory. It's not an evolutionary theory. It's the hand of God. putting
everything together according to His perfect purpose. And it's
His hand that holds all things together. We make that judgment,
don't we? We're not fearing things falling
apart. They'll come apart when He takes His hand off of them. And when He's ready to bring
everything to an end, He'll do that. That's our judgment. The princes will rule in judgment. And they'll rule in judgment
when it comes to the gospel. The scripture says, make righteous
judgments. And so what do we judge? We judge
that the king is sovereign. And if he's sovereign, then that
means that he chose us according to his own will and his own purpose
before time ever began. And that's what the scripture
says, and we make that judgment, don't we? So anyone that would
suggest that salvation is by man's will, Or that Christ died
for everybody and God wants everybody to be saved? We say, oh no, we're
a child of God. We're a prince that makes righteous
judgments. And that's not true. The righteous
judgment is that our God chose who he would have mercy on. Wrote
their names before time ever began in the Lamb's Book of Life.
and counted the death of Christ for their atonement, even before
it took place. We make righteous judgments about
the work of Christ on Calvary's cross. We reject any thought
or any suggestion that what the Lord Jesus Christ did on Calvary's
cross was in any way an offer of salvation to be made effectual
by something we do. No, you see, the princes rule
in judgment. We make judgments. I know you
have people, you stand for the truth and people say, well, you're
just being judgmental. Yep. Yeah, I am. But I'm judging righteous judgments
and I'm in agreement with the king. I'm in agreement with the
king. that when Christ went to the
cross, he went for the purpose of redeeming those whom God chose
in the covenant of grace. That's a righteous judgment.
And we make righteous judgments about regeneration, don't we?
We know that it's not of him that willeth, nor of him that
runneth. It's of God that showeth mercy, and he'll have mercy upon
whom he will have mercy, and whom he will, he hardeneth. Why
do we make that judgment? Because God has said it. Here's
the mind of the Lord. He's given it to us. Who has
known the mind of God? But we, we have the mind of Christ. And we're able to make righteous
judgments. We're able to say, yes, Lord, that's the way it
is. You've got to make us willing. And Lord, if I believe it's because
you gave me faith, because you did a miracle of grace in my
heart, you opened my eyes and you sovereignly caused me to
be born of the spirit. And that's the only reason I
believe. That's a righteous judgment. And the only people that ever
will believe are those that the Lord has mercy on. I hear people,
I read Calvinist sometimes and they'll say, well Christ died
for everyone that believes. That's true. But why say it like
that? Why say it like that? It's because
you want to take the offense out of the gospel is the reason
you say it like that. Christ died for the elect and everyone
of God's elect will believe. We make righteous judgments about
sanctification. We want to glorify God as we
saw in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, Sunday, in our bodies. But the outward behavior of our
bodies is not our sanctification. I mean, I hope that, you know,
That we're not doing things we used to do, and I hope that we'll
not do things that we ought not to do. But that's not our sanctification. Our sanctification is our union
with Christ. He that sanctifyeth and they
that are sanctified are all as one. We make righteous judgments
about that. We don't look to our outward
behavior to see if we're sanctified. We're looking to Christ. If any
man sin, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ,
the righteous one. And we make, we make righteous
judgments about that. We make righteous judgments about
glorification. Lord, if you don't keep me and
present me faultless, there's no way, no way I'm going to make
it. Completely dependent upon you
in faith for everything. Here's the judgment that we make.
We make the same judgment that Jonah made when he said, salvation
is of the Lord. Now if you worship the king,
now I'm not talking about feigned worship. I'm not talking about
the kind of stuff that religious folks do when they get together
and sing songs and play church. I'm talking about worshiping
God in the spirit, in the heart. That's what the Lord told that
woman at the well, isn't it? God seeketh after those who worship
him in spirit and in truth. And there's no worshiping of
God apart from the spirit and truth. We don't say to our unbelieving
friends, come worship with us. They can't. Invite them to come,
encourage them to come. Ask them to come listen and pray
that God gives them grace to hear. And if they hear, they
will worship. They'll bow before Him. Behold, a king shall reign, and
if he reigns in your heart, and you see him reigning on his sovereign
throne in glory, you see him reigning on Calvary's cross,
accomplishing the purpose for which the Father sent him, you
will be a prince that will make judgments about the truth. Judgments about the truth. We
are the true circumcision. Circumcision, I was talking to
somebody about this Sunday. Some people want to make a correlation
between Old Testament circumcision and New Testament baptism. And
so because the Old Testament Israelites circumcised their
babies at eight days old, they want to baptize their children
and call them part of the covenant of grace. There is no correlation
between Old Testament circumcision and New Testament baptism. The
correlation is between Old Testament circumcision and circumcision
of the heart. And just as that physical circumcision
on that eight-day-old boy made him a part of national Israel,
so the circumcision of the heart, that's the work of the Spirit,
enabling us to worship God, that's what makes us a part of the princes
of God, the children of God. And we do that, the Lord does
that for us, we'll make righteous judgments. Look what he says. Behold, a king shall reign in
righteousness and princes shall rule in judgment. We rule in judgment. We're not
shaken. We're not moved no more than
he is by the opinions of men. We know what's true. He goes
on to say in in verse 3 and the eyes of them that see shall not
be dim They're not dim We see clearly don't we can't understand
why other folks can't see it, but then we can can't we? Because
we know just like that him that we sang How could we sing that
him and not have any understanding of what we were saying? I? Behold a man Look at look at
verse 2 behold a man There is one God and one mediator between
God and man the man Christ Jesus the Lord He's a man. He's God's perfect man God Had
to come in the likeness and I like I'm so glad the scripture says
likeness in the likeness of sinful flesh And what that means is
that his body looked just like our bodies and no one could tell
that it was the son of god But he had no sinful flesh And he
came in the appearance of a man And he lived his life out in
perfect obedience to the father accomplishing what you and I
can't do And then he bore in that body all the sins of his
people on Calvary's cross and suffered the full wrath of God's
judgment in order to put away those sins once and for all.
Oh, what a man. What a man. When we get to glory,
we're gonna see a man. And he's gonna be glorious. And only then will we be able
to behold him The fullness of his glory right now. We look
through a glass dimly don't we but then face-to-face face-to-face
the scripture says He ascended into heaven bodily He did it bodily he was taken
up into heaven and The resurrected body, a glorious
body, but nevertheless it was a body. The disciples stood there
on the Mount of Olives gazing up into heaven and the angels
had to come and say, why stand you here gazing up into heaven?
This one, this man who's been taken up from you will also come
in like manner. He's gonna come again as a man.
We're gonna worship him in a body. Job said, even when I'm put into
the grave and the worms eat this flesh, yet I'll see him in my
body. Don't don't think that heaven's
gonna be some sort of Spiritual Experience that you know this
that no we're gonna have the Lord Jesus Christ in his resurrected
body That's why why do you think he had the disciples touch him
and sit down and eat with him? To say that I'm the man In his body, that he lived in
this world, he had all the same needs that our bodies have. He
had to sleep, he had to eat, he got tired. He could only travel physically
from one place to the next, the same way we do, just walking
as a man. And yet in that body, in that
body, He made the law of God honorable. He reigned in righteousness. Look what he says. A man shall
be as a hiding place. As a hiding place. Now there's
a storm coming. Turn back with me just a couple
pages to Isaiah chapter 28. Verse 15, because you say, we
have made a covenant with death and with hell we are in agreement.
I've made a covenant with God. I've made a promise. A covenant's
a promise. That's what a covenant is. And
man-made religion is based on promises that you make to God
with an expectation to be rewarded for those promises. And God said,
you make a covenant. The covenant that I'm concerned
that I'm interested in is a covenant that God makes with God that
cut that covenant won't be broken Look at verse 17 Judgment also
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 Men have hid themselves the caves and the
rocks of their own free will and their own good works and
their own their own decisions and their own their Their own
covenants God says when the storm comes You're not going to be
you're not going to be able to hide from God. I It's gonna sweep
away the lies. Look at verse 18. And your covenant
with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell
shall not stand. When the overflowing scourge shall pass through, you
shall be trodden down by it. Now compare that to the man we're
reading about in Isaiah chapter 32, who is a king, who reigns
in righteousness, and his princes rule in judgment. He is a man
who provides for us himself a hiding place. Now that's the hiding
place I'm interested in, because I know when the overflowing scourge
comes, when the wrath of God falls on this earth, it's not
gonna hurt him. Not gonna hurt him. Nor will
it hurt anyone that's found in him. Turn with me to Psalm 32. Psalm 32. Verse six. For this, shall everyone
that is godly pray unto thee in a time. when thou mayest be
found. Surely in the floods of great
waters they shall not come nigh unto him. Thou, thou, thou, thou
art my hiding place. The Lord Jesus Christ doesn't
say, get over here and I'll protect you. I'll provide you a hiding. No, I am your hiding place. Come
unto me, all ye that labor. Learn of me, take my yoke upon
you. For I am meek and lowly of heart. I'll give you rest, rest for
your soul. Christ is the only hiding place. When death comes, when the wrath
of God comes, the only place to hide, the only safe place. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
thou art my hiding place thou shalt preserve me from trouble
I Cry out to him from my heart every time I get in trouble and
I know you do too But the troubles that we face in this world cannot
be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us and There's
going to come a day of trouble. And men are either going to meet
him in glory or they're going to meet him in wrath. And he
says, thou art my hiding place in my time of trouble. And thou shalt come pass me about
with songs of deliverance. Oh Lord, I need to be delivered.
I need to be delivered. What can this man do for us?
He gives us a hiding place. He gives us the ability to make
righteous judgments, to know the truth about who we are, about
who God is, about how it is that God's pleased to save sinners.
He gives the princes of God the right to rule in judgment. A man shall be, go back with
me to Isaiah 32. A man shall be a hiding place
from the wind. Now we had a hurricane come through
here not long ago. And we were hoping it wasn't
going to come right over top of us. But even with the distance
that it had, we were looking for a hiding place, weren't we?
You're not going to stand out in the middle of a hurricane.
How does that compare? How does that compare to the
wind of God's wrath that's gonna sweep away this world? And the
Lord says, I'm your hiding place. I'm your covert. I'm the place
of safety. A covert from the tempest as
rivers of water in a dry place. If God has his hand on you, and
has given you a concern for your soul, you have found that you
cannot be satisfied with anything this world has to offer. It's
a dry and thirsty land. You are saying with brother Solomon,
vanity of vanities, all is vanity. There's nothing in this world
that meets the need of my soul. It's like it's like trying to
trying to quench your thirst with dust It doesn't work does
it? So this Christ himself is like
a river of water in a dry place and As the shadow of a great
rock in a weary land. Oh What a what a picture of Christ
Lord you you you're the shadow You're the you're the great rock
He's that rock that followed the children of Israel through
the wilderness, isn't he? He's the one that was smitten
by the rod of Moses from which came forth rivers of living water
and sustained the children of Israel in the wilderness. What
a picture of Christ. God smote him with the rod of
his justice and from him flows rivers of living water. Lord,
you quench my thirst. The Lord told that woman at the
well, you drink from this well? If you knew who it is that saith
unto thee, get me to drink, you would ask him and he would give
you living water and you wouldn't have to come back to this well. You don't have to come back to,
you don't go back to the well of the world in order to quench
the thirst of your soul, do you? The spirit of God keeps bringing
you back to Christ every day. Oh Lord, satisfy my thirst. Give me hope. Enable me, enable
me to worship you and to trust you. In verse three, in the eyes
of them that see shall not be dim. The seeing eye and the hearing
ear, the Lord hath made even them both. Proverbs chapter 20. The Lord makes the hearing ear,
the Lord makes the seeing eye. You can't see on your own. We're born blind. God's gotta
do a miracle of grace to enable us to see Christ. And in seeing
Christ, we see ourselves. And then it's all clear, isn't
it? It's all clear. It's so crystal clear to the
child of God of what he is. He knows he's a sinner. He knows
he can't produce any righteousness. He knows he can't bring anything
before a holy God that's going to earn him favor with that God.
He knows that. It's so clear, isn't it? And
it's clear that Christ is seated on a throne. The highest throne. The throne of all. He's the Lord
of Lords and King of Kings. And He rules and reigns in righteousness. That's clear, isn't it? It's
clear that you can't save yourself. It's clear that in order for
us to have any hope of salvation, God has to choose us. That's
so clear. People talk about making a decision
and exercising their will and presenting their works and growing
in sanctification and righteousness and becoming, all that is so
clear to us. I quoted a verse, and I've pointed
this out to you before, but I want you to turn with me to it. It's
in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. I quoted it Sunday. And in the context of what we
were talking about, you know, every time we try to think
about heaven, the best we can do is come up with an improved
version of what we already have, isn't it? I mean, we just don't
have a point of reference, do we? But we know that it's nothing
like what we have. It's going to be glorious. And
so the Lord said, I first Corinthians chapter two at verse at verse
nine, the Lord says, for as it is written, Isaiah chapter 64,
I have not seen nor ear heard, neither has entered into the
hearts of man, the things which God has prepared for them that
love him. And when it comes to heaven, that's true. We, our
eyes haven't seen it. Paul said when he saw it, it
was unspeakable. John heard the words of the seven
thunders and he had to put his pen down. He couldn't write them.
There were no words to describe what he saw. But read on. Look at verse 10. But God hath revealed them unto
us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. Now what did we just
read? The eyes of them that see shall
not be dim. The Spirit of God has given us
some clarity, some understanding. And what man knoweth the things
of a man, save the spirit of the man which is in him? Nobody
knows what you're thinking except you. Even so, the things of God knoweth
no man but the Spirit of God. You don't know what God's thinking,
you don't know what God... except the Spirit of God. And
if God gives you His Spirit, and then gives you His Word,
then you have the mind of God. Now, we have received We have
received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is
of God, that we might know the things that are freely given
us of God. So we do have an understanding.
We know what we're talking about. We see clearly. We see who he
is. We see who we are. We see the
only hope that we have of God saving us is through him and
by him. We know that we can't make a
contribution to it. He's got to do it all by himself. Which things also we speak, not
in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy
Ghost teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. How do
we see these things? We see them by the Word of God.
We take a scripture here and a scripture there and we compare
scripture to scripture. And that's exactly what we're
doing right now, isn't it? And it just becomes so clear.
Yes, it all fits. It all makes sense. I see, I
see. But the natural man, the unbeliever,
the one who doesn't have the spirit of God, receiveth not
the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto
him. What does he say? He said, that
doesn't make sense to me. That God would not love everybody? That doesn't make sense to me.
That God wouldn't want everybody to be saved? That doesn't make
sense to me. That Christ wouldn't die for everybody? That doesn't
make sense to me. That I don't have a free will? That doesn't
make sense to me. That God doesn't somehow give
me some credit for the good things that I do? That doesn't make
sense to me. Well, it doesn't make sense to
you because you don't have the Spirit of God. The natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit, for they are spiritually discerned,
their foolishness unto him, neither can he know them. He can't know
them. He cannot know them. But he that is spiritual judgeth
all things. Next time you stand on the truth
of the gospel and someone wants to try to refute you by saying,
well, you're being judgmental. Just say, yeah, I am. Yeah, I
am, because I've got the mind of Christ. And I'm a prince. And I'm making righteous judgments.
And I'm in agreement with the king. And you're not. And it's just that clear and
simple. And your accusations against me don't intimidate me
at all. Yet, he himself is judged of
no man. That's what that means. Your
accusations against me don't intimidate me. I don't worry about what you
think about me. Matter of fact, I don't have
any business worrying about what I think about myself. Isn't that
true? Self-esteem, that's the big thing,
isn't it? You just have a good self. You've got no business
worrying about what you think about yourself. There's only one person's thoughts
about you that count. And that's God's. So what's he
think about you? Scripture says you're the apple
of his eye. Scripture says I've loved you with an everlasting
love. Here in his love, not that we love God, but that he loved
us and gave his son a propitiation for our sins. If God before me, who can be
against me? I can't be against myself. I'm
judged of no man. Why? Because I'm making righteous
judgments. I know who God is. I know how
he saves sinners. I know who the king is. I know
where he is. And I see clearly. The natural
eye has not seen, nor is the natural ear heard the things
that God has prepared for us. But he has revealed them unto
us by his spirit. What confidence? What hope? What comfort? What peace? To have the truth of God in your
heart. You don't have to worry about
what anybody else thinks. You don't have to worry about what you think. He is judged of no man, for who
hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ." And somebody says, well, that's
arrogant. You got God's mind? Yep. It's what God says. I believe what God believes.
I know the truth about salvation. God's revealed them to me. I
know what I am. I know who He is. My eyes are
not dim. I'm a prince and I rule in judgment
because I bow before the King who reigns in righteousness. What else is there? Go back with me to Isaiah 32.
The eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them
that hear shall hearken, shall hearken. When we hear the truth
from God's word, the last thing out of our mouth, the one thing
that won't come out of our mouth, yeah, but, No? Amen. Amen. You heard it said, God said it,
I believe it, that settles it. God said it, that settles it.
Whether you believe it or not, but oh, what a joy it is in believing
what God says. The year shall hearken and the
heart also of the rash, The hasty shall understand knowledge. We have an understanding. We
do. If we know Christ, we've got
the mind of Christ. We've got the Spirit of God.
We've got the Word of God. We know the truth. and the tongue of the stammerer
shall be ready to speak plainly. Plainly. Now this is not, politics
has no place in the pulpit. No place in the pulpit. And I
hope in 20 years I've never, I've never said anything derogatory
about a governing official. We're not supposed to. But men want to hear the plain
truth. And what happened last night
was just simply because there was a man that was willing to
stand up and just speak with some clarity without beating
around the bush and being political. I mean, I'm not saying for him
or against him or anything. I'm just saying that And that's what men, that's what
I'm telling you that men want to hear and that's what they
need to hear. Now there's a whole lot of folks that don't want
to hear plain talk. They want to hear political speech, political
correctness. They want you to kind of, you
know, just kind of muddy the water a little bit and make it
fuzzy so that everybody feels comfortable. God's people just
speak plainly. They just speak the truth with
clarity. And God's people want it that
way. The rest of the world might not.
But those who worship the king, I want to know plainly what the
truth is. Oh God, make it plain, make it
clear, make it simple. Oh, worship the king. all glorious
above, and gratefully sing his power and his love, our shield
and defender, the ancient of days, pavilioned in splendor
and girded with praise. Number one, let's stand together.
Tom, come lead us, please. Number one. 2A 3.30 x (-0.001") O worship the King, all glorious
above, and gratefully sing his power and his love. Our shield and defender, the
Ancient of Days, pavilioned in splendor and girded with praise. O tell of his might, O sing of
his grace, whose probe is the light, whose canopy space, His
chariots of wrath the deep thunder clouds form, And dark is his
path on the wings of the storm. Thy bountiful care, what tongue
can recite? It breathes in the air, it shines
in the light. It streams from the hills, it
descends to the plain, And sweetly distills in the dew and the rain. Frail children of dust, and feeble
as frail, In Thee do we trust, nor find Thee to fail. Thy mercies, how tender, how
firm to Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend. Yeah. Yeah.