I said to the brethren that the
title of this message is, The Righteous King Reigns. But you could title this message,
Rejoiced the Lord is King. Or you could title it, Crown
Him with Many Crowns. Or you could title it, The Lamb
in His Throne. Because that's the message. Several
things were used of God to give me this message. One, I was thinking
about you and the burden that you've had to bear this year
and the different trials that you've suffered. And I was thinking
about the brethren in other places that are suffering and it's from
personal heartaches. It's from heartaches brought
on by brethren. It's from a nation that's divided,
and all these different trials in this world, and I was thinking
about those things. But also, another thing was,
is I had been studying this psalm, and I watched the inauguration
yesterday, and this psalm really spoke to me in a special way
after watching that. If you notice here in verse 1,
it says this is a psalm for Solomon. Psalm 72, 1. It's a psalm for
Solomon. And this is a prayer of David. And he's praying for his son,
Solomon, because he knows that the Lord's ordained him to be
the king. And he says in verse 1, Give
the king thy judgment, O God, and thy righteousness unto the
king's son. God had made David righteous
and a righteous and just king. And in spite of all his failures
and all the troubles he had, he was a righteous and just ruler. And he knew that only God can
make a righteous and just king and these gifts are given by
God. And I'll tell you how God gave
wisdom to Solomon to be a righteous and just king. He didn't just
drop wisdom in his heart. He made him see Christ. That's
how God makes a sinner wise. He makes him see Christ who is
our wisdom, who is our righteous judge. And he makes us follow
him. So David knew this. Now, knowing
this, brethren, whether we agree with any president's politics
or not, the fact that they're president means God put them
there. And that means something. And we should pray for them that
God would give them righteousness or wisdom to rule in righteous
judgment. We should pray for that. But
as I watched that inauguration of the new president, I thought
about David being replaced by Solomon as king. I mean, Solomon
replacing David as king. And I thought, You know, old
earthly Israel, just like the old covenant law, old earthly
Israel was temporal. And the kings and the priests
were men who had to be replaced from time to time because they
died. Well, that's the same with this nation. That's why, you
know, we've wised up enough to know don't leave one in office
too long and our rulers too long. We've got to switch them out. But they didn't replace kings
just simply for no reason. God did it at his good pleasure
or they died. But when a man was a king, he
was a king from then on. But they did die and they had
to be replaced. Well, brethren, that's how it
is with every nation in this world and every ruler in this
world. But here's the thing. Solomon is a picture of David's
son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he's the king eternal. He was
the king before he came, he was born the king, and he's the king
now, and he's always ruled his kingdom, and shall always rule
his kingdom, and there's no change in his throne. And the fact of
the matter is, you and I who've been born again of God, just
like you were born into this nation right here, we've been
born into the kingdom of God. That's the only way you can come
into that kingdom. You've got to be born in it.
And we've been born into that kingdom. We're free-born, really
free-born. We're born into this kingdom.
And our king is Christ. He's the king of kings and lord
of lords. And that means the kingdom that
we're members of, the kingdom that we're citizens of, is the
kingdom of all kingdoms. That's where we are. And that's
who we're ruled by. And so by creating us in righteousness
and holiness, in his righteousness and holiness, brethren, we're
in his kingdom without end. It won't ever end. We're in it
now, and it won't ever end. We're His holy nation, and we
will be for eternity, because He made us so. Our King is King
forever, and you and I have been made King-priests, holy King-priests. Go read Peter's word about that. We were made King-priests by
His blood, and that won't change. We're not going to be replaced
by other King-priests. That's eternal. You wouldn't
have eternal life. God wouldn't tell you right now,
you have eternal life right now. If you had any sin, you're righteous. You that know him, you that have
been born of him, you're righteous. And that's why God says to you,
you have eternal life. You're in a kingdom that knows
no end. Now, I know it doesn't appear like that to us a lot
of times, and it doesn't appear like that to this world, but
the kingdom of God comes without our observation. Nonetheless,
that's so. You're in his kingdom ruled by
this king. And so, we're going to reign by this king. We are
right now and we shall. Brethren, don't get caught up
in the divisions of this world. Don't get caught up in this.
Just don't. And I know it's all designed
by the devil to appeal to our flesh. And it does. And we get
caught up in it. You know what we manifest by
doing that? We manifest we're not looking to Christ. Don't
get caught up in it, because here's the truth. Paul said in
Philippians 3.20, our conversation, and that means our citizenship,
our citizenship is in heaven. From whence also we look for
the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, the King. who shall change our
vile body that it may be fashioned like to his glorious body." Right
now all we have is a vile body, but it's going to be one day
fashioned like his glorious body, according to the working whereby
he's able even to subdue all things to himself. Remember that. He gives lesser kings in this
earth, but he's the power. They're going to do what he tells
them to do. And so Romans 13 tells you and me, just submit
to him. As long as they don't keep us from worshiping Christ,
submit to him and do whatever they say, because he's ruling
them. Whatever they do that you don't like, Christ is doing it. He's doing it. Now it might be
sinful, it might be for sinful gain, it might be for filthy
lucre and the love of money that is their motive for doing it,
but Christ is overruling it and they're doing it because he's
willing it to come to pass. But let me show you from this
psalm something that's even more blessed than that. Here's the
assurance we have. Being in Christ's kingdom under
Christ the King's rule, He's ruling with perfect just judgment
in righteousness in this earth right now for you and me. He's
working everything just for you and I who are members of His
kingdom. That's what He's doing. And He's doing it to keep us
looking to Christ our King. That's why He's doing it. He's
doing it to remind us that He alone is our righteousness. He's
doing it to remind us He alone which provides the grace and
the strength by which we're going to continue in faith. So He's
turning you and me from everything below with all the trials, with
all the rulers, with everything that's going on in our lives.
He's doing this to turn us from us to Christ to remind us He's
our all and in all. And that's the purpose. Now,
when we suffer these trials, when we disappoint ourselves,
and we disappoint our brethren, and our brethren disappoint us. Brethren, whatever trial it is making us
sorrow, and there's so many things that make you really, really
sorrowful. Some things you just don't understand,
and you can't explain it. And you may be a lifetime trying
to understand it. But beholding Christ, we behold
the only comfort we have is Christ. He is the only comfort we have.
And beholding him, we remember he sent the trial. We remember
he's working righteousness for us in the midst of it. And we
remember, and here's what he's going to make his child experience. This is why he sends trouble.
He's going to make you experience that his grace is sufficient
for you. We all want to, we talk about
wanting to know more and more that Christ is our only strength.
Well, I'm going to tell you how he's going to make you know that.
in direct proportion to how he makes you suffer and see you
don't have any strength. And that's painful. Very painful. But here's the thing. You wouldn't
cause the suffering. You wouldn't cause anybody to
suffer through what you're suffering or anything like that. You don't
want to do that. But here's the thing about it. His grace will
make you know it's so much greater than the suffering. Even when
you suffer, His grace and His strength is so much, it makes
it worth it. Though you wouldn't cause the
suffering, it makes it worth it because you learn more that
He is truly your only strength. I've seen more this year, clearer
than ever before. I'm nothing but weakness, but
Christ is nothing but strength and He's my only strength. That's
what He's going to teach us. Now, first of all, I want you
to see this. Christ, our righteous King, rules, and He rules His
people in righteousness. He says here in verse 2, He shall
judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment. The
mountain shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills
by righteousness. He shall judge the poor of the
people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break
in pieces the oppressor. They shall fear thee as long
as the sun and moon endure throughout all generations. That can't be
spoken of Solomon. None of that can be spoken of
Solomon. Now, he was a good king while he was a good king, but
that's so of every king. He's a good king while he's a
good king, while God made him a good king, but this is the
king who is only good. We're talking about this Christ.
Now, who is Christ exercising this judgment for in this earth?
Who is it that makes up this kingdom? David's praying to God
and he says, he shall judge thy people. Christ is exercising
judgment in this world for God's people, for God's elect, for
those He chose in Christ before the foundation of the world,
not by any righteousness in us. He's working judgment for those
Christ came and redeemed. He's working judgment for you
who He's proven are His elect by sending forth the Holy Spirit
and sanctifying you and bringing you to a belief of the truth.
He's working judgment for his people. Now here's the description
of us. We're the poor. He says in verse
2, He shall judge thy people with righteousness and thy poor
with judgment. That's who we are. We're the
poor. I listened to those speakers yesterday and they talked about
how how good our nation is and kept using the term sacred, this
sacred ground we're on and this sacred thing that's taking place. There ain't nothing sacred about
it. It's not holy. That word means holy. There's
nothing holy about it. There's only one that's holy. When you're in God's presence,
you're on holy ground. But here's the thing about that
is they were talking about the good people of this nation. Our
Lord has told us there's none good, not one. The only one that's
good, Christ said, is God. He's the only one. We're poor.
We're bankrupt of righteousness, totally. We are bankrupt of all
holiness in ourselves. In our flesh, we're poor. We
have poverty of spirit. Unless he gives us a new spirit
and maintains us by the Holy Spirit, we don't have any spirit
of God. We're poor. And we have a poverty of sin
and inability. And that's how we are, brethren.
We're wicked. That's what we are. Remember Christ when he
was speaking to his brethren, that he had made righteous in
him. But speaking of just them and what they are in their flesh,
and speaking of us and what we are in our flesh, he said, if
you being wicked know how to give good gifts to your children,
shall not God? We're wicked. That's, it's all
we are. Stop, we need to stop thinking somehow that we're good
or better. We're not. We're not good. Not
in ourselves. But he's gonna, he's gonna, judge
with righteousness the poor. If you can take your place there
at being the poor, totally poor in ourselves, this is who God's
doing this for. This is who Christ our King is
working this for. Now look, being poor, we're needy. Verse 4, he says, he'll save
the children of the needy. And he says in verse 12, he'll
deliver the needy when he crieth. He says, the poor and him that
hath no helper. That's us. Verse 13, look down
at verse 12. He said, he'll deliver the needy
when he crieth, the poor also, and him that hath no helper.
Verse 13, he'll spare the poor and needy. He'll save the souls
of the needy. He'll redeem their soul from
deceit and violence. He's shown us we're the needy,
brethren. We need everything. We need everything
spiritual, and we need everything temporal. Christ said a man can
receive nothing except to be given him from above. What you
have, he gave it, both spiritually and temporally. He gave it. We
like to think, well, I built this business and I pulled myself
up and I did it. But the fact of the matter is
we wouldn't have the health to do it if he didn't give it to us. He'll let you see that every
now and then and see that if he don't keep you healthy, you
ain't going to even have the strength to do anything. He gives
everything. He gives us righteousness. He
gives us strength, both spiritual and temporal. And so he makes
you see we're the one in need. And here's why we're needy. There's
an oppressor. There's an oppressor. He said
he's gonna break in pieces the oppressor. We have an oppressor.
The devil's the oppressor. We know that. But I tell you
something else, our sinful flesh is the oppressor. the flesh in
you and me, and we're needy, and Christ is the only one that
can free us from that oppressor and provide us what we need.
But in his righteous judgment, he's provided for the poor and
needy. He's already done it. He's already broken the oppressor
in pieces. Look here. He says, verse 2,
David's looking forward to this happening, but we know he's come
and done it. Look at verse 2. He shall judge
thy people with righteousness and thy poor with judgment. He's
done it. To do that, do you know what
he, for Solomon to judge like this, he's going to have to have
a heart of love and compassion for the poor and the needy. And
our Lord Jesus Christ had a perfect heart for us poor and needy people. His poor and needy people, he
had a perfect love for us and a perfect love for God his father,
and he's the only one that did. And so our king came forth and
he judged us with righteousness. What he did is he judged that
we could not make ourselves righteous in ourselves. He judged that
the only way we could be made the righteousness of him, which
he required, is if he did it. And so he took his place and
suffered for us. He suffered hell for us. You
that have children, and you that have new children, would you
give your child to suffer hell? for a vile, wicked sinner? That
one you hold and love and cherish, would you give that child to
suffer hell for a wicked sinner? That's what God the Father did.
That's what Christ did for his people. That's what this king
did. You see why he's the lamb in
the throne. He's the lamb who took our place. There's never been a king like
this. Can you imagine the day we would have a president that
would put himself in the place of the poor? to make the poor
rich. They all talk about it, but the
whole purpose of being where they are is so behind the scenes
they can make themselves rich at the expense of the poor. That's
just the way of man. But we got a king who made himself
poor to make us rich. That's what he did, and he did
it by bearing the hell we deserved on the cross. And he did it. He accomplished it. And so he
fulfilled this prophecy. Verse 4, he broke in pieces the
oppressor. He did spare the poor and needy.
He saved the souls of the needy. He redeemed our souls from deceit
and violence. Now, child of God, we're already
saved by Christ our King. Get this, we're already saved
by him. When you read the Old Testament,
he's talking about what he's gonna do. Make sure you hear
it in light of the fact he's already done it. You can put
it in the past tense. He has saved us. He has broken
the oppressor. It's just a matter of time, Paul
said, and he's going to brew Satan under your feet shortly.
But he's already done it. He's already come and he broke
in pieces the oppressor, the devil. He broke in pieces that
oppressor that is the body of sin you're carrying around right
now. He's already broken him in pieces. He's buried. He's
dead before God. broken in pieces the death and
hell, which were the oppressors. Every oppressive enemy we have,
he's already broken them in pieces. He's done it. So now what he's
doing is he's making us see he already judged us in righteousness.
And so we can be assured everything he's going to do in this earth
for us, he's going to do it in righteousness. He's going to
do it right. So if he sends me to trial and it's sorrowful,
I have this assurance. I have this comfort of knowing
this is the right thing. It's the right thing. And why
it's right is not because of anything I've done. What I might
have done might have been wrong. What you might have done might
have been wrong. Not always, that's not always the case. And
I say that because I don't want some of my suffering brethren
right now who are suffering to think they did something wrong
for the Lord to send them that. Find me what Job did wrong. That's
just self-righteous meanness to accuse, well, you must have
done something wrong. I told you about my grandmother.
She dropped off some food at a lady's house and she had broken
her wrist. A lady came out and said, what
happened? My grandmother said, oh, it's
just sin. And that woman said, what'd you do? She didn't mean
that. She meant, it's just what I am. It's just what I expect in this
world. But I'm saying to you, when he
sends you to trial, he's showing you he's already judged you in
righteousness. And he's going to make you see
that and know that and comfort you through it. And you'll know
this has all been right when you see him that way and know
that. Now secondly, where is it he's going to give us this
discernment? Where is he going to teach us this, that he's our
peace? Look at verse 3. The mountains shall bring peace
to the people and the little hills by righteousness. The place
where you're going to find this truth, and he's going to speak
to your heart and teach you this, is under his gospel where you
are right now hearing it preached. That's where he's going to do
this. You see the mountain, the mountain, is Zion, Mount Zion. That's where the Hebrew writer
says, you that believe, you've been brought to that mountain,
heavenly Jerusalem. It's where Christ is speaking
to his people right now through the gospel as it's being preached.
That's the mountain we've been brought to. We can't touch that
mountain. It's a spiritual mountain. But
that's where we are and he's in that high mountain and he's
teaching his people. Go over to Isaiah 2. I'm going
to show you a few scriptures. I hope we don't take too long
here, but I want you to see these scriptures. Isaiah 2, verse 2. He's speaking of Judah
and Jerusalem and that's his people. That's his elect. That's
who he's talking about. Now watch this. Verse 2. It shall
come to pass in the last days. Hebrews 1 tells us that started
when Christ came. That's when the last days started.
Most of what people are looking for to happen at the end of the
last days started when Christ came. And if you'll read prophecy
that way, you'll find out he restored Israel first. His people
out of Nazareth, he restored them first. And then he's calling
the Gentiles now. But if you read this, watch this.
In the coming of the past and the last days, the mountain of
the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains.
See, he's in the mountain, and he's lesser mountains, plural,
is where you are right now. This is the mountains that are
just hills compared to that mountain. But look, and he's in that mountain,
and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations, his people
out of all nations shall flow unto it, singular. When we come
to this little mountain, this little hill, we're coming to
that mountain. We're coming to that that one
mountain where Christ is, coming to Christ. And many people should
go and say, come ye, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us of his ways
and we'll walk in his path. For out of Zion, out of that
heavenly Zion, shall go forth the law. This is that law he
said, remember when he said Christ would come and he said, and the
owls shall wait for his law? This is it, it's the gospel.
And that's what we're doing right here. The word of the Lord from
Jerusalem, from heavenly Jerusalem. He shall judge among the nations.
That's what he's telling us in our song. And she'll rebuke many
people. He's doing it through this gospel.
And what's going to be the result when he does that? He's going
to create a new spirit in you, and he's going to renew that
spirit in you, and he's going to remind you he's ruling things,
and he's your peace. And when he does that, here's
what the result's going to be. They'll beat their swords in
the plowshare, and their spears in the pruning hunks, and they
won't lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war
anymore. So come let us walk in the light of the Lord. Does
that mean we're not going to ever have wars in the earth? No. That means
in your heart, he's going to create peace toward your brother. Whoever you got out against,
you're going to quit pulling out the sword on them, and you're
going to be a farmer to them. You're going to till the ground. You're going to try to help them,
and you're not going to try to hurt them. But you're going to
do it. You may come in here with your
sword drawn. You may come in here ready to make war. But when
he speaks peace into your heart, you're going to go out of here
beating that sword into a plowshare. You're going to go out of here
with peace in your heart. And you're going to go out of here
doing that, you're going out of here walking into the light of
the Lord. And the churches he establishes in the earth, they're
the mountains and the hills from which he's feeding us. Go look
back at Psalm 72, look down at verse 16. He said, there should
be a handful of corn in the earth. Where's it going to be? Where's
this bread going to be? On the top of the mountains.
He says his mountains in the earth now and the fruit thereof
is going to shake like Lebanon. It's going to be plentiful. And
they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth. You're
of the city, you're of the heavenly Jerusalem, and you're gonna flourish,
but through this gospel. Let me show you that, Ezekiel
34. Ezekiel 34, and look at this,
in verse 13, what he promised. He said, I will bring them, 13,
I'll bring them out from the people, That's what he did through
the gospel. I'm going to bring them out from
the people. I'm going to gather them from their countries, and I'm
going to bring them to their own land. He's going to bring
you into his kingdom, into this land that is our land, through
the gospel, being born again of him into this new land. And
I'll feed them upon the mountains of Israel. That's where you are
right now. By the rivers and in all the
inhabited places of the country. And I'll feed them in a good
pasture. and upon the high mountains of
Israel shall their fold be." That's where you are right now.
You're in the fold, in the good pasture, in the high mountain,
where his gospel's established, where he's feeding his people.
And they'll lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture, so they
feed upon the mountains of Israel. And he said in Joel 3.18, it'll
come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drop down
new wine. This is the gospel's new wine. And the hills will flow with
milk, and the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a
fountain will come forth of the house of the Lord, and water
the valley of Shittim. And that's what he's doing. He
is the new wine, he's the milk, he's the fountain, and he's making
all this flow to us through this gospel in this fountain. And
knowing it's Christ speaking to us, you know what we say?
Did you go read Isaiah 52? He said, what are these people
that are oppressing my people? He was talking about his people
in Israel who were being yoked with the law and whipped with
the law. He said, who are these people? They're oppressing my
people. He said, so when the day I come forth, they're going
to know it's I that speaks. And he says, And this is what
they're going to be brought to say, how beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him. He didn't say the feet of them.
That's what Paul said. Paul was talking about his preachers.
Christ is talking about himself. They're going to say, how beautiful
on the mountains are the feet of him that brings his good tidings. The only reason his preachers'
feet are beautiful is because his feet are beautiful. He's
the one that brings the glad tiding. He's the one that makes
you know he's reigning. Now, do you want strength in
the trial? And I know some brethren right now suffering, and this
is our thought when we start suffering. I just can't read
the scripture. I just can't go hear the word
preached. You want strength? Do you want comfort? Assemble
with the Lord's people under the preaching of his gospel.
He said, this is where I'm going to make you notice. This is where
I'm going to give you this peace. This is where I'm going to give
you this comfort. Right here. Right here. Assemble with his people. There's no peace except Christ
from above give it, and he's going to give it through his
gospel. Now thirdly, let me wrap this up. What's this light he's
going to make us walk in? What's this peace we're going
to walk in? First of all, it's knowing this, that Christ is
our king who alone is going to break in pieces the oppressor.
Verse 4, he said, he shall break in pieces the oppressor. The
oppressor is your flesh and mine, brethren. The devil, we know
we can't break him in pieces, but Christ can do that. But I'll
tell you the pressure we think we can break in pieces is our
flesh, mine and yours. We can't. We can't. He tells
you the only way you can mortify your flesh is through the Spirit.
That means you're going to have to flee to him. You have to go
to Christ. And he's the only one that can
make you do it. And he's the only one that can make your brethren
do it. And he does it through this gospel. So what do we do?
If he's using me to be an aid to my brother and I'm going to
walk in the light, how am I going to be a help and be used of Christ
as the bride and be a help meat to my husband? How am I going
to do that and be a help to him? I'm going to point my brother
to Christ and declare to them the truth of the gospel. because
he's the only one that can help them. Now brethren, when your
flesh just won't let you find any comfort, when you can't find
any comfort because of your sinful flesh and your trial comes and
you just, you know, and I'll tell you this, when a trial hits
us, there's times you just don't want to be comforted. You just
don't, I don't want to, I don't want to find any comfort. And in our flesh, we're not going
to. But I'll tell you this, if you
truly want spiritual comfort, where real comfort is, brethren,
He's going to make you know His grace is sufficient. He will. I'm telling you something. I'm
telling you this is so. He will. He will. And He's going
to give you this trial to make you experience it and make you
know it. And he will. Now look, the result is he's
going to make us walk in his peace by faith. Verse 5. This
is walking in the light. He shall fear thee as long as
the sun and moon endure throughout all generations. When he does
this in every trial, when he renews your heart, he makes you
see he's your peace, and he's ruling for you, and he's doing
everything he's doing in righteousness for you to show you he's your
righteousness, that he's your comforter, that he's your salvation,
and he's your strength. When he does that, There's a
new reverence for him in your heart. And he's going to do this
as long as the sun and the moon endures. He's never going to
let his people fall away from him. He's going to keep this
reverence in your heart. And the fruit and the peace that
he's going to make through this gospel, verse 6, it's all through
his God. He shall come down like rain,
verse 6. He shall come down like rain
on the mown grass. by showers that water the earth.
In his days the righteous shall flourish in abundance of peace
so long as the moon endures." Remember he told Moses my doctrine
is going to distill as the rain and as the showers on the cut
grass. When he sends this gospel he
comes down He comes down, the spirit and the gospel is compared
to rain, and he distills, he comes down in it. You know this
when you hear it. You know it. You know he spoke
to you. You know it. And he comes down, and the first
thing he does, he cuts down your flesh, because it's just grass.
He said, there, he's going to come down like rain on the mown
grass. That means to cut grass. He's got to cut the grass first,
and he's going to cut your flesh down, because our flesh is just
grass. But that's good. That's where the pain comes in
for us. And that's sad, and it does, but it does. That's where
the pain comes, because it goes against what we want. But sometimes
it's best to go against what we want, most of the time, if
not all the time. But then he's going to give you
this, he's going to make the righteous flourish. He's going
to make the new man who's righteous, that he's made right, he's going
to make you flourish. And that's what he's going to do. And the
dominion of this king is all over the world. He'll have dominion,
verse 8, from sea to sea, from river to the end of the earth.
And it's going to make the wicked, it's going to make people, wherever
his people are, they're going to bow to him. And the wicked
are going to lick the dust. This is what he's going to do.
Now look. Now here's what I want you to remember. This is it. This is my final word. So here
it is. Christ is doing all this not by giving us ease in this
world. He's not going to do that. You
ain't going to have a perfect government. It's going to get
more corrupt and more corrupt and more corrupt until God throws
it all in hell. That's just going to happen.
Just live with it because it's going to happen. And your sinful
flesh ain't going to get better and better either. It's going
to get more corrupt and more corrupt and more corrupt until
God throws it in the dirt and makes a new one. He's not going to give us perfect
freedom from oppressors in this earth. He's not going to spare
us the sorrow of trials on this earth. He's going to use our
sin. He's going to use our inability,
our falls. He's going to use the power of
all the ungodly oppressors. He's going to teach us to look
to Christ our King alone. To teach us Christ alone is judging
and righteousness for us. To teach us Christ alone saves
His needy people. To teach us Christ alone are
the riches that overcomes our poverty. To teach us that He
alone has power to break the oppressor in us and in our brethren.
Our peace and our righteousness is Christ and he's going to make
us adorn the gospel. Now let me tell you something
about adorning the gospel. You don't add nothing to the gospel. We
think of adorning like a woman that's pretty and she puts on
pretty earrings and that adorns her. But it really don't add
anything to her. She's already pretty. And we
don't add anything to the gospel. We adorn the gospel with whatever
the gospel's adorned us with. what he adorned us with. Now
remember that, brethren, he's going to make you walk in the
light of his holiness. But remember, you can only do
that with the measure in which he gives you. And so when a brother
falls, walking in the light is also being merciful and gracious
and forgiving. And if we're not gracious and
forgiving, be thankful that he works that in our brethren because
they'll be merciful and gracious and forgiving to us when we're
not being merciful and gracious and forgiving. And we want that. Think about it this way. Brethren
that have been in this faith for a long time who are your
elder brethren, been aged in years. I learned this from a
brother recently I talked to who's well up in years. And the
way he spoke to me, it was a lesson to me in just how gracious and
kind he was to me. And you know when a These elder
brethren looking at us, they have to see the way we react
to things and realize we're just like the way you look at little
children. They're just immature. There's sin in them, there's
self-righteousness in them. But what do they do to you? Treat
you like a brother, gracious and kind and forgiving and point
you to Christ. And they see it. They see the
things that me and you don't see. You didn't know you was a teenager
when you was a teenager. When you got older, you start
looking back and you realize my mom and dad was a lot smarter
than I thought they were. And that's what happens. As you
grow older, you look back and you say, man, I was so full of
sin and self-righteousness. And just think how that older
brother treated me, gracious and kind and merciful to me.
That's what I'm saying. He's teaching us that. That's
what he's teaching us. And the mountains are going to
bring peace to the people. The little hills are going to
come. It's going to come righteously. Verse 4, he's going to judge
you, the poor, the people. He's going to save you who are
the children of the needy. He's going to break in pieces
the oppressor. He's going to make you fear.
Verse 5, as long as the sun and moon endure. And he's going to
do it by coming down. Verse 6, like the rain on the
mown grass through this gospel. He's going to make you flourish.
And he's going to do this from sea to sea because he has the
dominion. And those that dwell in the wilderness,
wherever his people are, they're going to bow before him and praise
him. And all the enemies, our flesh
and every other enemy, he's going to bring down to the dust. And
you can just bank on that. So it's good. Whatever's happening,
it's good. It's right. And we're going to
be the better for it always. Amen.