Let's turn in our Bibles to Psalm
28. Our subject tonight is a call
to judgment. A call to judgment. Let me read
Psalm 28, verses 3 through 5. Draw me not away with the wicked
and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbors,
but mischief is in their hearts. Give them according to their
deeds and according to the wickedness of their endeavors. Give them
after the work of their hands. Render to them their dessert,
or what they deserve. In the news this week, we're
hearing much about what's just and what's unjust. One side thinks
they're just and the other side's unjust. The other side thinks
they're just. Well, fallen man at his best.
Fallen sinners at their best are described in verse 3. This
is not man's judgment. This is Christ's just judgment. This is Christ's judgment of
things. And this is every man at his best state outside of
Christ. They are the wicked and workers
of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbors, but mischief
is in their hearts. We just read in Zephaniah, from
the prince all the way to the sanctuary where the priests were,
everybody in authority was corrupt. Everybody. It's all men outside
of Christ. It matters not what side of whatever
issue a person is on. That doesn't matter. It doesn't
matter if a person is in vain religion or they're irreligious.
Outside of Christ, all sinners are wicked, workers of iniquity,
speaking peace with their lips while mischief is in their hearts. That includes vainly religious
whitewashed folks and it includes political folks. The Lord said,
the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth
and cry peace. Hear what they do? They make
my people err, they bite with their teeth and cry peace. And
he that putteth not into their mouth, Christ didn't put the
word in their mouth. He that putteth not into their
mouths, they even prepare war against Him. Everybody is included
in this. Believer, this is what I want
you to understand. Never look to man to determine
what's just and right and what is wrong. Never look to man. Don't look to one religious denomination
or another religious denomination to determine what's right or
wrong. Don't look to Democrats or Republicans to try to determine
what's just and what's not just. Don't look to liberals or conservatives
to try to learn and find out what is just and unjust. Don't
let CNN or Fox News tell you what's just or unjust. Always
remember, the way of depraved flesh is to selectively choose
what he calls moral for his own profit. while overlooking what
condemns him or his cause. That's the way of flesh. He always
selectively chooses what he says is moral because it suits his
cause. And he overlooks that which does
not. God calls it working iniquity. Working that which is unequal,
unjust, unrighteous. Speaking peace with the mouth
while evil is in the heart. This is the only thing a depraved
heart can produce. That's it. The only one who can
save justly, the only one who can establish judgment and continue
to do what is just and right, the only one who can do so is
Christ Jesus the Lord. The only one. The only one. If a man does anything right,
it's because Christ worked it. Christ worked it. He's the one
who establishes judgment and justice in the earth. He did
it at the cross and He is one day going to do it in final judgment
and His kingdom, the result will be His kingdom will be a kingdom
of justice. There will be no injustice there.
There will be no iniquity there. There will be no one side and
the other side there. There will be all one people
just in Him. The just Lord is in the midst
of this place. He is in the midst of this country.
He is in the midst of this earth right now. It's just like He
was in Zephaniah's day. The Lord is in the midst thereof.
He will not do iniquity. He will every morning, He'll
bring His judgment to light and He faileth not. That's the Lord. He shall not fail till He has
set judgment in the earth. He shall not fail. So let's ask
Christ our God, draw me not away with the wicked. Don't let me
be found on one side or the other being drawn away into that mess. Draw me not away with the wicked.
And I have to ask Christ to establish me in justice and draw me not
away. Draw me not away. Now since Christ alone magnifies
God's justice, I want to focus tonight on how He deals with
the wicked in verses 4 and 5. Now, as we read this verse in
verse 4, I want you to picture Christ, the judge, calling for
judgment upon the reprobate. The reprobate is a man who passes
from this world never believing on Christ. That's who we're talking
about here. Judgment upon the reprobate.
He passes through this world never believing on Christ. Verse 4. hear Christ speaking,
give them according to their deeds and according to the wickedness
of their endeavors. Give them after the work of their
hands, render to them their desert, that which is just, that which
they justly deserve. Now first of all, let me explain
to you, this is not David praying as an individual for God to take
revenge upon his enemies. That's not what this is. And
when I say praying as an individual, when I'm alone praying, I'm praying
as an individual. I'm not representing anybody.
I'm just praying alone. Now if I was to be alone and
began to pray and pray this and pray God cry down fire on my
enemies because I won't see vengeance taken on them, that's what Christ
tells us not to do. Christ tells us to pray for our
enemies. So that's not what's taking place here. This is David
writing by inspiration of God the Holy Spirit. That's what
this is. The prophecy came not old time
by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were
moved by the Holy Ghost. Now here's what God's doing.
This is a mouthful, but this is what I want to set forth first
of all, because we're going to see this throughout. God is using
David, who was a king over natural Israel. He's using him as a king
over natural Israel, representing natural Israel, to call on God
to magnify His justice against God's enemies. That's what he's
doing. It's not his enemies he's praying
against, it's God's enemies he's praying against. So here he is,
King David, representing natural Israel, and he's praying to God,
calling on God, calling for judgment from God to magnify the justice
of God upon those that reject God. And he's doing that to picture
Christ who is the judge over all and the king over his spiritual
Israel. who in the final day he has magnified
justice, and he shall in final judgment magnify justice against
all his enemies. Do you get that? That's what
we're going to see here. The Father judgeth no man, but
hath committed all judgment unto the Son. So this Psalm is a prophecy. This is a prophecy showing how
Christ the Judge shall magnify God's justice upon the reprobate. just like He magnified the justice
of God in the salvation of His people. There's only one that's
going to magnify God's justice, that's Christ. He's going to
do it two ways. He's going to do it in justice,
saving His people, and He's going to magnify God's justice when
He pours out wrath on the reprobate. So that's what we're beholding
here. Now, hearing this, that this is about people who pass
through this life, unbelievers, reprobates, this should get every
unbeliever's attention that hears this. You know, if you've gone through
your life to this point, not believing on Christ, and you
plan on going the rest of your life not believing on Christ,
listen to this because this is how God is declaring Christ shall
magnify God's justice upon you. This is how God's going to magnify,
Christ is going to magnify God's justice upon you. So I'd listen. I'd listen to this. It's very,
very important. Now here's the first point I
want us to see. God deals with the unbelieving reprobate in
perfect justice. He judges the unbeliever as he
wants to be judged. He judges the unbeliever the
way the unbeliever wants to be judged. And He gives him exactly
what he justly deserves. Look here in verse 4, "...give
them according to their deeds." That's how they want to be judged.
They didn't want to be judged in Christ. They want to be judged
according to their deeds. So Christ says, "...give them
according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of
their endeavors." Give them after the work of their hands. Render
to them what's justly deserved to them. God always does what's
just. He always does what's just. He
never does iniquity. Not at all. Now those who face
God without faith in Christ, They don't have a mediator. They
don't have the righteousness of God. And they face God without
Christ. They're saying they want God
to judge them according to their works. That's what an unbeliever
is saying by not casting his care on Christ. He wants to be
judged by his works. And that's what God will do. God will meet you wherever you
want to be met. That's right. If that's how a man wants it,
that's how God will do it. He'll judge him according to
his deeds. And not only that, you know,
his deeds includes everything both good and evil that he's
done. That's his deeds. And whether he called it good,
it's still going to be judged as coming short of the glory
of God. because all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. The Scriptures say if we come
into God's presence, we will be judged by Christ and we will
come up wanting. There is no doubt about that.
And get this, when He says there, judge them according to the wickedness
of their endeavors, the endeavor is the wicked thing that a man
purposed in his heart And yet God prevented him from actually
doing it. He only thought about it. He
didn't actually do it. He just thought about it. He
would have if he could have, but he couldn't. He just thought
about it. All man's deeds, even all the thoughts of his heart,
shall be found sinful. And God shall give them after
the work of their hands, rendering to them their just dessert. God shall give them that which
they justly deserve. Listen to Revelation 13.10. He
that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity. That's just,
isn't it? He that killeth with the sword
must be killed with the sword. Here's the patience and the faith
of the saints. We have to wait on God to execute
judgment upon the wicked. We have to wait patiently. Then
shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from Me,
ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his
angels. And shall cast them into a furnace
of fire, there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. And we're
talking about forever. Death is not annihilation. Death
is not you just body going into the ground, that's it, and you
turn into dust. Death is your spirit going to
be with God and being judged and then suffering eternity. If you meet God without Christ.
So that's serious business, isn't it? That's serious business. But I want you to look at this
same verse now, that same verse, and I want you to see that God
judges the believer in justice too. God judges the believer
in justice too. He judges us how we want to be
judged. And He gives us what's just,
what we justly deserve. Look here. He shall give them
according to their deeds. By faith, you know what we're
professing? You know what we're professing by faith? Professing
by faith that we want to be judged by the deeds of Christ and not
by our deeds. That's what we're professing
by faith. And that's what God will do. He's going to give us
according to our deeds. And Christ's deeds have been
made our deeds. Whenever a believer believes
on Christ, God imputes the righteousness of Christ to him because Christ
already made him the righteousness of God. He justly gives him what
he is by Christ's obedience. So in Judgment Day, God is going
to give us what we deserve because of Christ's deeds. And look at
this. By Christ dwelling in us, because
He has come now and sanctified His people, God's going to give
those who believe on Christ that which is according to the righteousness
of their endeavors. What's a believer's endeavor?
It's all the things that you would have done for Christ, but
you just didn't have the ability to do it. You thought about it
and would have wanted to do it. The motive was in your heart
to do that which was right and good and just for Him, but you
just couldn't do it. And yet, God will say in Christ
that all the deeds of the believer and all the thoughts of the believer
are perfectly righteous. It's totally just. God only sees
His people in Christ. And He sees us perfect, and right,
and just. Ecclesiastes 9.7, He says this. This is amazing to me. I was
working on this message, and Brother Don called me. And we
got to talk about something else, totally separate from the issue
of justice. We were talking about Christ
creating a new man within, God imputing righteousness to us
through faith and making us righteous. And brother Don quoted this verse
and it was just the verse I needed right here in this part of my
message. Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy
wine with a merry heart, for God now accepteth thy works. Isn't that good news? God accepts. What I'm doing right now is,
in myself, it's so mixed with sin. Which one is me, the old
man or the new man? Both of them. And everything
the old, wicked, sinful man does is sinful, and that's me doing
that. And everything the new man does is righteous and holy
in Christ, and that's me doing that, by Christ in me, working
through me, by His grace. And yet, God says, I'm as righteous
as Christ is, and all my works are perfect as His deeds. Because
it's His deeds that He's looking to, not my deeds. And you know
everything we need to be righteous, He is that. Right now, I'm preaching. Who's the perfect preacher? Christ. You know, you sing it. Who's
the perfect psalmist? Christ. You know, you play an
instrument. Who's the perfect musician? Christ. Everything we need, Christ is.
Who's the perfect faithful person sitting in the pew listening
to the Word of God His Father? Christ. So, the perfection of
anything we're doing is Christ. He's everything. all our righteousness. Therefore, in the day of judgment,
Christ is going to render to them according to the work of
their hands that which is their just dessert. Christ magnifies
God's justice by giving His people what Christ earned for us by
justifying us, which is what we justly deserve for trusting
Him. Christ went to the cross and
justly And perfect righteousness justified everybody for whom
He died. And so now it's just for Him
to give us life. And it's just for Him to give
us according to that righteousness what we justly deserve. Believers
have declared all their lives. When we get to final judgment,
And our judgment took place on Calvary's cross. But when we
get to that final judgment, believers will have gone through all our
life declaring that in Christ alone we wanted to be found.
And in Christ's righteousness alone we wanted to have the praise
and the glory and the honor. And so we shall have that because
it's our just due by Christ's finished work. It's what's just. So you see, Christ in salvation
or in condemnation is the one who's going to magnify God's
justice. Christ is, whether it's in salvation or condemnation.
And sadly, unbelievers hear that and they just go on in unbelief.
Listen to this. Rejoice, O young man, in thy
youth. and let thy heart cheer thee
in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart
and in the sight of thine eyes. But know thou that for all these
God will bring thee into judgment." We've got to stand before God
in judgment. There's no way anybody on this earth is going to get
around that. And we're going to either magnify God's justice
as a trophy of His grace by believing on Christ in this life, or we're
going to magnify God's justice in condemnation when He casts
us out into outer darkness forever. But one of the two, we're going
to magnify God's justice. A man will say, well, God's sovereign,
so it's not my fault. I just have a feeling a man's
not going to open his mouth and say that that day. I have a feeling
he's going to be shaking so badly, all he can do is bow and confess
Christ is Lord to the praise and glory of God. That's all
he'll be able to do. He won't be near as bold and arrogant
and hard-hearted in that day. He'll be bowing in that day.
Now lastly, who will be to blame if we perish? Who will be to
blame if we perish? What will be the cause that the
reprobates cast out in justice? Look at verse 5. Because they
regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of His hands,
He shall destroy them and not build them up. The cause for
this just and sudden destruction will be squarely upon the shoulders
of the sinner alone. It will be his own fault. He
earned it. The wages of sin is what? Death. You know what a wage is.
You ever got paid a wage without working? No, you had to work
for a wage. That's something you earned.
And that's what he's saying here. This would be the wage that they
earned because they regarded not the works of the Lord nor
the operation of His hand. And we saw Sunday that all things
are of God, creation, Providence and salvation, all things are
of God. But I want to focus on salvation
because if a man doesn't behold the works of God and the operation
of His hands in salvation, he doesn't behold them in any of
the others either, anything else either. Salvation. The works of the Lord. What's
that? That is the work of redeeming His people from the curse of
the law in a manner that is just. That's the work of His hand.
Redeeming His people from the curse of the law in a way that's
just. The very purpose for which Christ
came to this earth, the very purpose for which the Son of
God came down was to manifest, to declare the righteousness
of God. That's why He came. That's the
gospel. Our message is the righteousness
of God. God's right. must do right. So, God the Son was made of a
woman, like His brethren. He was made under the law, proven
faithful, proven without sin. And He hath made Him sin for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. There was no way around that.
He had to be made sin for His people, if His people would be
made righteous. And the Lord finished that work. He did that work. And God's pleased
with that work. And when God imputes righteousness
to a believer, God's not treating him as if he's righteous. God's
not saying, well, we're just going to say you're righteous.
God's imputing to him what Christ made him by his own obedience. Now that's so. And so, that's
the work of His hand. This man who's going to meet
God in judgment and be judged is a man who does not regard
the sin atoning work of Christ at the cross. He disannulls it
in some way. and then the operation of His
hands. What's the operation of His hands? This is the second
part of this work that's necessary to save His people. It's the work of God the Holy
Spirit in the heart whereby He regenerates us and sanctifies
us and that too is through the works of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Look at Titus 3. All of this is glorifying Christ
in how Christ magnified the justice of God. We know that so at the
cross. For some reason, men somehow
don't think that that's glorifying to say that Christ does this
work in the inner man. But He does. It has to be. It
has to be. Look here. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, This regenerating work has nothing to do with our
works or our will. Not by works of righteousness
we've done, but according to His mercy He saved us by the
washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed
on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. that being justified by His grace,
we should be made heirs. We should be created anew in
life and righteousness and holiness and according to the hope of
eternal life. So because He justified us at
Calvary, that meant the Holy Spirit of God must come when
Christ calls for Him to come in mercy. We're looking at the
call of judgment. When Christ calls for the call
of judgment for those He's justified, it's this, go forth and quicken
that man. Go forth and regenerate that
man and grant him faith and repentance to see what I've done for him.
It's a must that it must be done because Christ justified him
on the cross. And so everybody Christ justified, they must be
born of God, they must be taught of God, and they shall all be
taught of God, the Scripture said. The holy justice of God
is declared in and by Christ Jesus on the cross and in the
hearts of His people. The work of the heart of His
people. The works of His hands and the
works of the Lord, the operation of His hands. And so the blame
for the unbeliever's condemnation, what's the blame then for the
unbeliever's condemnation? It's his own fault because he
did not believe on Christ. He regarded not the works of
the Lord in and by Christ. And he regarded not the operation
of his hands through Christ. Look at John 3. John 3.17. And this will help you with this
interpretation of this, because it's been so wrongly preached. God sent, verse 17, this is Christ
speaking, God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the
world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth
on Him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned
already. He was condemned before Christ
came to this earth. And now, by rejecting Christ,
his condemnation is made sure. Because he hath not believed
in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Look at 1 John 5.10. I can just read this to you. It says, He that believeth on
the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth
not God hath made him a liar because he believeth not the
record that God gave of His Son. In 2 Thessalonians 2.10 He said,
They received not the love of the truth that they might be
saved, and for this cause God shall send them strong delusions
that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned
who believe not the truth, but did this, had pleasure in unrighteousness. Think about that. If you believe
the truth, you know what you're doing? You're declaring, you're
magnifying and declaring that Christ Himself magnified the
justice of God on the cross for His people and in the sanctifying
work that He does in His people. When you believe on Christ, that's
what you're declaring. Christ alone justifies God. When
a man doesn't believe on Christ, He's saying he doesn't believe
that's so, but not only that, he delights in unrighteousness. He looks at his own works and
says, well, I ought to be judged as being righteous. I've done
my best. I've done the best I could do. I want to be judged an eye
for an eye and a tooth for a tooth according to what I've done.
That's delighting in unrighteousness because everything we've ever
done is unrighteous. So get this, God's going to magnify
His justice by destroying the reprobate and not building them
up because they would not delight in Christ magnifying God's justice
alone. They wouldn't believe on Him.
They wouldn't trust Him to magnify God's justice alone. They had
pleasure in their own unrighteous, self-righteous works. But you
know what we do through faith in Christ? We do delight in this. We delight. in what the Lord
has done. We say that all we regard as
our salvation is the work of His hands and the works of the
Lord and the operation of His hands. That's all we regard as
our salvation. I want you to look at two scriptures
with me. John 3. I should have told you to hold
it. Go back there to John 3 and look
at verse 21. Here's the contrast. But He that
doeth truth, cometh to the light," and watch why we come to Christ
the light, that His deeds may be made manifest that they are
worked in and by Christ our God. That's why we come to Christ.
See, when the Holy Spirit's convinced you of sin, of righteousness,
and of judgment, all fulfilled in Christ, when He's convinced
you that you want Christ to be magnified, you want all your
deeds to tell the world that all the deeds I'm trusting in
are the deeds worked in and by Christ who is God my Savior.
That's what you want people to know. We're not trying to hide
the fact that we trust only in Christ. That's what we're declaring
by faith. We trust only in Christ. Listen
to this, Psalm 73. Go there with me. Psalm 73, verse
28. I just want you to look at the
last part of this. Psalm 78, 28. I don't know what
I wrote down. Oh, I'm sorry, I can't read.
Psalm 73, 28. Look at this second part. I have
put my trust in the Lord God that I may declare all Thy works. You see that? The act of believing
Christ is declaring all His works. By believing, when you're baptized,
you know what you're going to be declaring? You're going to
be declaring, I'm saved one way, by the works of the Lord and
the operation of His hand. You're saying, by faith in Christ,
I'm declaring His works were all worked to save me. He did
it. Everything. That's what we declare. So this
is what I'm trying to say to you, brethren. Christ is the
only one who can establish this judgment and magnify the justice
of God in this earth. Men have been trying for ages
to create a just society, a just kingdom. Karl Marx was trying
to do exactly what God's preacher is doing by the grace of God
through the preaching of the gospel. He was trying to make
people do what they said in Acts 2, where they didn't see everything
as their own, but they saw it as all belonging to each other.
And they put all their goods together and said, this is ours. It's not mine, it's ours. And
if one of them falls and needs help, then they have a heart. The one that has a blessing has
a heart to help him. And the one that's fallen by
God's grace has a heart not to take advantage of his brother,
but to get back on his feet because he wants to help the needy. You
see, that's what God works in the heart. But try as a man may
to replicate that. He'll end up just... It won't work. It won't work. Everywhere they've ever tried
to do it, how did it end up? It didn't work. It doesn't work. Only Christ can establish justice
and only Christ can make a people just and make them love righteousness
and make them desire to do right and one day that's all we will
do is righteousness. when we're with Him forever.
So what I'm saying is don't be carried away with this vainly
religious, self-righteous nation of religious folks and of political
folks. Don't get carried away with that.
You're not going to see justice done in this earth. If you turn
the television on 20 years ago or 30 years ago, no, 40 years
ago, 40 years ago in 1977, You would have seen, you would
have thought you were watching the same news as you watch today.
Same thing. Been going on. Same exact thing.
One side saying the other side is unjust, the other side saying
we're just, you're unjust. And it's all unjust. Every bit
of it. It's all the love of money is
the root of all evil. And it will be that way till
the last breath is taken. And then they'll stand before
God and say, where did we not do many wonderful works? And
he'll say, get out of here. All you've ever done is work
iniquity and you're working it right now. What I'm saying to you is look
to Christ, believe on Christ, obey Christ, because in Christ
alone justice is magnified and in Christ His kingdom is established
in righteousness. When God's going to judge this
world in righteousness, He's going to do that one day. I want
you to go to Revelation 19. He's done that at the cross.
It's done at the cross. But one day, He's going to make
it manifest to everybody in the final day of judgment that He's
finished judgment. But in that final judgment, He's
going to make it known. And when He's cast out all the
rebels in this world, cast them out into outer darkness, you
know what? every believer is going to do.
We're going to not have any sin. Right now, you might not understand
this because you have sin in you. But in that day, we're not
going to have sin. We're going to be perfectly righteous. And we're going to love that
which is just perfectly. And here's what the whole host
is going to do when he casts out, when he magnifies his justice
in condemning the reprobate. This is what we're going to do.
Revelation 19.1. After these things I heard a great voice
of much people in heaven saying, Hallelujah! Salvation and glory
and honor and power unto the Lord our God! For true and righteous
are His judgments, for He hath judged the great whore which
did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and He hath avenged
the blood of His servants at her hands." We're going to rejoice
in His judgment. We're going to rejoice when He
casts out the reprobate because we're going to see how it magnifies
His justice perfectly. So trust Christ, look to Christ,
believe on Christ. If you don't believe on Christ,
you don't want to be an object to magnify His justice and condemnation. We want to be an object of His
grace magnifying His justice and salvation. So go to Christ,
believe on Christ, and don't stop believing on Christ. Continue
in Christ. Continue looking to Him alone.
And if it helps, turn off CNN and Fox News. It just riles me
up when I watch it. Amen.