If you'll open your Bibles with
me to Isaiah chapter 33. There's one verse here that I
would like for us to look at this morning and I pray the Lord
will teach us and be pleased to reveal himself to us. It's found in verse 22. For the Lord is our judge. The Lord is our lawgiver. The Lord is our king. He will save us. If we are to
be saved, we need a righteous judge. We need one who is able
to satisfy and fulfill all the demands of God's holy law. The
Lord is our judge. If we're to be saved, we have
to have a lawgiver. We have to have the Lord to write
the law of grace and the law of Christ and the law of love
in our hearts. Only he can do that. If we're
to be saved, we must have a reigning sovereign, a king who subdues
us and makes us willing and reigns over us. We know that the Lord Jesus Christ
himself is that judge. He is that lawgiver and he is
that king. And I've titled this message,
Christ, Our Judge, Our Lawgiver, and Our King. The Lord the Father hath committed
all judgment unto the Son. He shall judge thy people with
righteousness and thy poor with judgment. Every time it seems
that we talk about the judgment of God, someone wants to bring
up Matthew chapter seven, verse one, judge not that you be not
judged. And certainly we don't want to be guilty of looking
down our self-righteous nose of the judgmental attitude towards
others as if we were better. That's not what we're talking
about this morning. God makes you to be a sinner, particularly
if he makes you to be the chief of all sinners, that'll go away. Our Lord said in John chapter
seven, verse 24, judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous
judgments. To judge righteous judgments
is to agree with God. And so I pray that, The Lord
Jesus Christ will give us that spirit of grace enabling us to
make righteous judgments and to agree with him. Philippians chapter one, Paul
in writing to the church at Philippi said, I pray that your love may
abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment. Paul is
praying for the church that they will be able to make righteous
judgments about that which is true. Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter
four said, with me it is a very little thing that I should be
judged of you for I judge not my own self. Yet am I not hereby
justified for he that judges me is the Lord. We're not capable of judging
ourselves and it matters not what judgment someone else has
of us, but the judgments that the Lord has for us and of us
are necessary for our salvation. The Lord is our judge and we
shall be saved. The Lord himself is not only
the judge of all the earth, but he himself is the standard by
which judgment is made. His judgments are true. His judgments
are inflexible. His judgments are immutable.
The judgments of God are the judgments that will stand for
all eternity. One of his judgments is that
he will not clear the guilty. He will punish every sin. And so, When we read here in
God's word, the Lord is our judge. The Lord is our lawgiver. The
Lord is our king. We shall be saved. We are in
need of the Lord to bear the guilt of our sin that God would
be satisfied with judgment and justice. And that's exactly what
he did when he went to Calvary's cross. we must have our sins
judged. If the Lord should mark iniquity,
who shall stand? Truth is that there is enough
sin in what we are doing right now to send us all to hell. And if the Lord doesn't execute
and exercise his judgment against our sin, we will not be saved. He was offered up for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. Romans chapter four, verse 25. And that little preposition for
can also be translated because of. He was offered up because
of our offenses and raised again because of our justification. If I said to you, we do this
in English as well, not just in the biblical language, but
if I said to you that Jesse James was wanted for robbery, you could
understand that one of two ways. You could say he was wanted in
order to commit a robbery or he was wanted because of a robbery. Obviously, the second would be
the case. Turn with me to that passage
in Romans 4. The last verse in Romans four, who was delivered for or because
of our offenses and was raised again for or because of our justification. Now notice in verse one of the
next chapter, therefore being justified, now I want to, Remind
you that the punctuations in our Bibles were added by the
translators, and I think they made a mistake here. They put
the comma in the wrong place. You have in your Bibles that
the comma is after by faith, therefore being justified by
faith. We're not justified by faith.
We're justified by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look
over in verse nine, much more than now being justified by his
blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. We're not
justified before God by our faith. The comma needs to be after the
word justified, therefore being justified, comma. We have faith
with God, we have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ,
by faith, by faith. Here's the, the Lord is our judge
and we shall be saved. We have to stand justified before
God. In order for that to be, the
Lord Jesus Christ's blood must stand as our justice before a
holy God. One in whom there is no condemnation. Our Lord's obedience on Calvary's
cross, His obedience, His active obedience and fulfilling all
the demands of God's law, but He was obedient even unto death,
even the death of the cross. He was obedient passively. He
became the object of God's holy justice, of His wrath. And the Lord Jesus Christ, in
dying on Calvary's cross, shed his precious blood in order to
justify his people. He was offered up because of
our offenses and raised again because of our justification. The resurrection wasn't in order
to justify us, the resurrection was proof that we were justified
by what he accomplished on Calvary's cross. The Lord is our judge
and we shall be saved. If he doesn't justify us before
God, we will not be justified. Yet in Christ, we have a righteousness,
a perfection before God's holy law. This is what it means to
be justified. It means that the law has no
claim on us. It means that everything that the law requires has been
fulfilled. It means that being found in
Him, we have a perfect obedience to the law, for as He is, so
are we. What a glorious hope. What a
glorious Savior. The Lord is our judge. and we shall be saved. He shall save us as our judge. This is our boldness in the day
of judgment. Our boldness in the day of judgment
is that as he is, so are we. So are we justified before a
holy God. Christ himself is the end of
the law for righteousness to everyone that believe. Everything God requires, satisfy
what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished on Calvary's cross. To be righteous, to be holy,
to be sanctified, Christ himself hath redeemed
us from the curse of law, for as it is written, cursed is everyone
that hangeth on a tree. The Lord Jesus Christ laid down
his life as the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of
the world. Justify us before God. How can
it be that God would justify us and separate our sins from
us as far as east is from the west. How can it be that he would
remember them no more? How can an omniscient God say
that I remember your sins no more? Daniel 9, verse 24 says, he finished
the transgression. He made an end of sins. He made reconciliation for iniquity
and he brought in an everlasting righteousness. His sorrow, his
suffering, his separation, his shame, satisfied what God required.
So perfectly did he satisfy the requirements of his father that
God says to you and me, I remember your sins no more. I buried them
in the depths of the sea. I've cast them behind my back.
Oh, what a glorious hope. Here's what it is to be justified.
To be justified is to have no sin before God. The Lord is our
judge. and he will save us. We cannot justify ourselves before
God. That's exactly what the Lord
Jesus Christ accomplished on Calvary's cross. God saw the
travail of his soul and God was satisfied. And God requires nothing
more. And God will settle for nothing
less than the sacrificial atonement the redemptive work of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the one to whom God gave judgment and justice
and righteousness, that we might be saved. The Lord is our judge. He so graciously and effectually
redeemed us by his blood that God said, I remember your sins
no more. Turn with me to Isaiah, you're
in Isaiah 33. Turn over just a few pages to
Isaiah chapter 42. And we know who is being spoken
of in Isaiah 42, just by looking at verse one. Behold, my servant,
whom I uphold, mine elect, and whom my soul delighted, I put
my spirit upon him, and he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. That's exactly what he did. He
bore all the sins of all of his people in his body upon that
tree. The sword of God's justice was sheathed into his heart and
he satisfied the demands of God's holy justice. The Lord is our
judge and he shall save us. Notice, if you will, down in
verse 18. Hear, ye deaf, and look, ye blind,
that ye may see. Who is blind but my servant,
or deaf as my messenger that I sent? Who is blind as he that
is perfect, blind as the Lord's servant, seeing many things,
but thou observe not? Open in the ears, but he heareth
not. The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness' sake,
and he will magnify the law and make it honorable. And that's
exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ did. He magnified the law of
God. He made the law of God honorable, and he established judgment and
justice for his people. The Lord is our judge. I hear people say, you know,
God is my judge. The problem with what most people
say, when most people say that, they don't understand the standard
by which God judges. Here it is. The Lord Jesus Christ
is that plumb line. We are that teetering wall left
to ourselves, put together with mortar that's,
the wall's gonna fall, isn't it? The Lord Jesus Christ is
our justice. He's our righteousness and he's
our judgment. This is his judgment. He said,
but judge righteous judgments. To judge righteous judgments
is to believe what God has said about who the Lord Jesus Christ
is and what he's accomplished. Exercising judgment and justice
for his people. The Lord is our judge. He's also judged his people loved. make righteous judgments. What
is it to make righteous judgments? It's to agree with God in his
judgments. So God looked at the travail
of his son's soul and God was satisfied. And God said, my wall
has been made honorable and all for whom he bore their sins are
now justified before God by his shed blood. The proof of that
being the reward of his resurrection. We have the Lord Jesus Christ
now ascended back into glory as our advocate before the Father.
And I love, you know, as a preacher, we always delight in knowing
that the Lord's word will not return unto him void. It will
accomplish the purpose for which he sends it. And, you know, because
our hope and our efforts is very frail, but that the Lord would
be pleased to bless it and not return it void. And that's true
every time we stand and declare the gospel, but it's most especially
true. When the living word, the Lord
Jesus Christ, ascended back into glory and took his rightful place
at the right hand of the majesty on high, when God the Father
said to him, sit down here at my right hand until I make thine
enemies thy footstool, he did not return to his rightful place
void. He returned back into glory with
the names of those for whom he lived and died. And the scripture
says that they are seated with him now in the heavenlies. He
accomplished that for which he was sent, the justification of
his people. And the reason that he did it
was because of his love for them, of love them with an everlasting
love. This is God's justice. This is
his judgment. He says that we're the apple
of his eye. We can't understand that any more than we can understand
how it is that God could be justified with all of our sin. We believe
it. He calls the church the apple
of his eye. I love that passage over there
in the Song of Solomon where the Lord is speaking to his bride
and he says, he says, one look from you ravishes my heart. How could that be? How could
it be that while I pause in the daytime and I offer up a prayer,
that the Lord's heart is ravished because of his love for me. And
hearing his love, not that we love God, but that he loved us
and gave his son as a propitiation for our sins. This is the manifestation
of his love, what Christ did. Greater love hath no man than
this, that he lay down his life for his friends. This is God's
judgment. We make righteous judgments when
we believe God's judgment. when we believe that what the
Lord Jesus Christ did on Calvary's cross was sufficient, was sufficient
for our justification before God, that he did it out of his
love for his people. No husband ever loved his wife
more than the Lord Jesus Christ loves his bride. No parent ever
loved their child more than the Lord Jesus Christ loves his children. This is his judgment. The Lord
is our judge and we shall be saved. He's also judged us faithful.
We look at ourselves and we see all the inconsistencies and we
see how easily we're distracted and how easily we're caught up
in the fleshly things of this world and of our own sinful thoughts
and lives and yet, The Lord says to the saints and
the faithful brethren in Christ. When the lamb is seen in the
book of Revelation coming with his church, the Lord calls his
church chosen, called, and faithful. Faithful. You see when the Lord is pleased
to give to his people faith, The gifts of God are without
repentance. They will remain believing. They
will not be able to not believe. And the Lord calls them faithful.
This is his judgment. The Lord is our judge. If he
doesn't judge us justified, if he doesn't judge us loved, if
he doesn't judge us faithful, we will not be saved. But he
is our judge. And as our judge, these are his
judgments and he will save us. And oftentimes we believe not,
yet he abideth faithful for he cannot deny himself. He cannot
deny any member of his body. I'm so very thankful for the
Holy Spirit who continues to bring us back again and again
and again and again. To whom coming? That's the work
of grace in the heart. That's his faithful work, to
keep us faithful. We don't look at ourselves to
determine that faithfulness. I love the 11th chapter of Hebrews,
don't you? Where the Lord recounts the lives
of his faithful saints in the Old Testament and no mention
of their unfaithfulness. And yet, when you go back to
the Old Testament and read their lives, you find out all sorts
of unfaithful acts in their lives. And this one particular verse
stood out to me. Moses forsook Egypt, not fearing
the wrath of the king, but rather to suffer with the people of
God. Moses ran from Egypt because he was scared of the death of
the king. But here's what the Lord describes
as the faithfulness of his people. That's his judgment, that's his
justice. The Lord is our judge and he
shall save us. The Lord is our lawgiver. The Bible makes it very clear
that the Lord has written the moral law on the heart of every
man. We come into this world with
an understanding of right and wrong. I've had people say to
me over the years, you know, preacher, you need to teach us
how to live. I think, you know how to live. You know what y'all
to be doing. You know what y'all about to
be doing. That law has been written on your heart from birth and
all men have it. So when God says the Lord is
our law giver and he shall save us, he's not talking about the
moral law. He's talking because a lot of
people have moral law written on their hearts that are not
gonna be saved. He's talking about the law of grace. He's
talking about what Jeremiah spoke of and Paul repeats in Hebrews
chapter eight and chapter 10, when he said, I will make a new
covenant with the house of Israel. I will write my laws upon their
hearts and personal upon their mind. It won't be like the old
covenant. No longer will it be necessary for a man to say to
his brother, you need to know the Lord, you need to know the
Lord. In Old Testament Israel, most of the Israelites were unbelievers.
But in the New Testament church, they shall all know me from the
least of them even to the greatest. This is the law of love. This
is the law of grace. This is the law of the spirit.
It's written on the heart. This is what he does in the new
birth. Paul speaks of that law of sin. These are the graces that are
written in the heart. This is the law giver saving
his people. Those who have the moral law
written on their heart that aren't saved, that don't know the Lord,
they evaluate their lives and they come to the conclusion that
they're doing a pretty good job in keeping the moral law. I'm
not killing anybody, I try to tell the truth. I don't lie and
steal and that sort of thing. I've been faithful to my wife. God writes the law of sin on
your heart. Paul speaks of it in Romans chapter seven and beginning
of Romans chapter eight. You know you've never kept one
of God's laws one time. Never been able to do it. The
Lord is our lawgiver. and he shall save us. As the Lord himself written,
the law of the spirit, the law of grace. James speaks of it
as the law of liberty, to be free in Christ, to have our sins
put away, to have an advocate with the Father. The law of liberty, free to love
God, free from the penalty of sin, by God's grace free from
the power of sin, brought again and again and again back to our
lawgiver. All the law of Christ Paul speaks
of that in Galatians chapter six, when he talks of, you know,
those of you that are spiritual, help out, you know, your brother
for so fulfill you the law of Christ. We're to love one another
and pray for one another. This is the law of Christ. This
is the bond of faith and peace that God puts in the heart. This
is when the Lord becomes our lawgiver. Again, all men have
a moral code written on their heart. But the law of grace,
the law of the spirit, the law of sin, the law of Christ, the
law of love, the Lord is our judge. The Lord is our lawgiver. And he shall save us. And without
this law being written on the heart, there will be no salvation. Lord, take out my heart of stone.
Put in a heart of flesh. Write your laws upon my heart.
This covenant of grace, that you spoke of, Lord, that's what
I'm in need of if I'm to be saved. And notice back in our text,
the Lord is our king. He is our king. Left to ourselves, we will put
ourselves on the throne of God, 2 Thessalonians 2, no question
about it. And we will worship the creature
rather than the creator, Romans 1. That's if we're left to ourselves.
We make ourselves to be king. We raise our fist to God in rebellion
and say, I'll not have that man reign over me if we're to be
saved. We're gonna have to be made women.
We're gonna have to be brought to submit to the sovereign reign
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is not an unwilling
submission. This is a rejoicing. I have a king now. I have a king. I've been making myself king.
I've been looking to others for my authority. But now I know
the Lord Jesus Christ reigns. We must have him. Otherwise we'll
be like Israel. wanting the same kind of king
that the rest of the world has. Samuel said to the children of
Israel when they came to him, no, the Lord is your king. No,
no, we don't want him to be our king. We want to have a king
we can see. We want to have one we can look
at. And so they got a man head and shoulders above everyone
else. And we know what happened after that, what the king saw.
We want to be like other nations. When the Lord Jesus Christ reigns
in the heart, then we have a king that reigns. It's not like the
kings that men choose. He subdues us, he makes us willing,
he causes us to kiss his hand, kiss the sun, lest he be angry. We do, we bow before him, that's
what worship is. The Lord is our king. The Lord
is our judge. The Lord is our lawgiver. And
he shall save us. Oh, Israel, Hosea said in Hosea
13, verse nine. Oh, Israel, that has destroyed
thyself, but in me, there is help. I will be thy king. I will
be thy king. You've destroyed yourself, but
I'll be your king. What a joy it is to bow willingly
and worship before the Lord Jesus Christ as King of kings and Lord
of lords and know that when he comes riding on that white stallion
and he has written upon his thigh, King of kings and Lord of lords,
it comes as a conquering king. His faithful, justified servants
will be with him. We rejoice. We rejoice in having
him as our king. There's a story in Judges chapter
18 about a man by the name of Micah. And Micah's name means
like God. And Micah in this story to me
represents all believers. Micah makes idols and he hires
a priest and he says, now I've got God's favor. And the tribe
of Dan, And Dan translated means judge. The tribe of Dan comes in and
takes Micah's idols, and then they take away his priest. And
Micah's first reaction is to complain. And they said, what
are you complaining about? He said, well, you've taken away everything
I have. And... And they warned him not
to complain. And the Bible says this in Judges
chapter 18, when Micah saw that Dan was too strong for him, he
went back to his house. You know, that's what happens
when the Lord brings us to faith in Christ. We come to that realization,
he's taken away my eyes. taking away my priest and he's
too strong for me. And what a glorious place that
is to be. To be left with no place else to go. We need a God
that's too strong for us. A God that we cannot rebel against.
A God that will take our swords and beat them into plowshares
and our spears and beat them into pruning forks. A God that
will cause us to put our rebellious fists down The God that will
say to us what he said to Levi when he walked by him at the
money changer's table, he said, follow me, and immediately he
got up and followed him. That's king. That's a reigning
king. When he went to Peter, James,
and John, who had a louver to finish fishing business on the
Sea of Galilee, and he said, follow me, I'm gonna make you
fish as a man. They put down their nets and they followed
him. That's a king. That's a persuasive,
The king takes away our eyes and makes us willing to follow
after him. Only God, only God can make a
man love that which he hated and hated that which he loved.
Only God can give sight to the blind. Only God can raise the
dead. That's the sovereign reigning
authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, who said, I'm your judge, I'm
your lawgiver, I'm your king, and I will save you. Amen.