Alright, if you take your Bibles
and turn with me to Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 32. Isaiah chapter
32, we'll be looking at verses 1 and 2. And I've entitled this message, The King
of Righteousness and Princes of Judgment. The King of Righteousness
and the Princes of Judgment. The Scripture says, Behold, a
king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment. And a man shall be as a hiding
place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest, as rivers of
water in a dry place, as a shadow of a great rock in a weary land. King, a king that shall reign
in righteousness. Now, this is one of many prophecies
concerning the Messiah, concerning the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the one that God had anointed from the beginning.
You remember the beginning prophecy, the first prophecy was given,
the seed of the woman shall crush the head of the serpent, and
he shall bruise his heel. The Messiah, the King, was to
come. He was to be a Savior. He was
to be a Redeemer. He was to crush the head of sin,
to crush the head of the father of lies, to crush the head of
Satan, and He was to do this by the bruising of His heel,
which is His crucifixion, His death. And he does this to redeem fallen
sinners, to heal the dead spiritual condition of his saints. And by his victory over death
and Satan, by his obedience to the law, by his satisfaction
of the justice of God, he has been exalted. He has been raised
from the dead and exalted to be what? A king. A king. In our day, we live in a place
where we have no king. It seems like we have 600 would-be
kings. In a republic, you have everybody
that would be king. But we have no king here. We're
supposed to live in a republic, and I don't know if that's even
true in our day. But one thing I do know. is that no one man
will ever rule as king in this world. No one person, no one
man will be a despot. Now, in former times there were
despots, there were kings. You remember in that, it was
prophesied in Daniel that when the Roman kingdom would fall
that there would be no more monarchs. And we see this in Daniel when
he interprets the dream of Nebuchadnezzar. Remember, Nebuchadnezzar had
that dream of the statue, the head of gold, and the chest and
arms of silver, and the belly and the thighs of brass, and
the legs of iron, and the feet of clay and iron. Well, we know
this, that the Babylonian kingdom was the head of gold. That was
the most glorious kingdom that ever was. He was a monarch over
the whole world. Then you have a lesser kingdom,
the kingdom of the Medes and the Persians, that's silver.
Then you have a lesser kingdom and that, the kingdom of brass,
which is the Grecian kingdom. Then you have that kingdom of
iron, which is the Alexandrian kingdom. And then you have the
one of iron and clay, that's the Roman kingdom. It was a mixture
of a king and a senate, an emperor and a republic. And these two
things, we know by looking at the Roman Empire, it didn't mix.
It was constantly crumbling. It was a mixture of iron and
clay that cannot mix, but in that vision you remember there
was a stone. A stone that was not made with
hands, cut out not by hands. And it was cast at the feet of
that image. And it broke the image into pieces
so that it was blown away like chaff in the wind. And the only
thing that remained was the stone. And the Scripture says that stone
became an exceeding great mountain that covered the whole earth. We know who that stone is. That
stone is Jesus Christ. God said, Behold, I lay in Zion. What? A stone. A trident stone. A precious corner stone. This
stone is Jesus Christ. He is that one made without hands. You remember, He was not made
Himself, but when He became a man, the Scripture says that the Holy
Spirit made Him a body in the virgin's womb. The Spirit conceived
Him in the virgin's womb and gave Him the nature of man, excluding
sin. And for this purpose, that he
should be king. That he should be king. It was
the king who was to come and destroy all the kingdoms of men
and do what? Establish his own kingdom. That
mountain that should cover the whole earth is speaking of his
kingship. That he should rule the entire
world and all that is in it. Behold, our text says, a king
shall reign, and that king is Christ. He established His kingdom,
and that kingdom is established forever. Therefore, when He came,
what did He preach? He preached this, repent, for
the kingdom of heaven is at hand. It's right here. He's pointing
them to himself. The kingdom is here. The king
has come. Behold, a king shall come. And
Christ says, behold, a king has come. The kingdom of God. This is why no one rules the
world. There are no more sovereigns.
to do with men as they please, because God has sent Christ to
reign over all the world, and there is none to usurp His authority. There is none who will take His
place, and His kingdom will never be destroyed. Over in Luke, I'm
just going to read some of this. I don't have to turn there because
I want to move on here. But when he was born, this is
what the angel said in Luke chapter 1 and verse 30. He said, "...the
angel of the Lord said, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found
favor with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive
in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his
name Jesus." He shall be great, he shall be called the Son of
the Highest, and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne
of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob
forever. And of his kingdom there shall
be no end. This is the one who would come
into the world. For unto us a child is born,
for unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon
his shoulders. His name shall be called Wonderful
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace. And God says this in that very
next verse. I don't want to misquote this
because it's really important. It's Isaiah chapter 9. Let me
turn here real fast. It says, "...of the increase
of his government, peace, there shall be no end, upon the throne
of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, to establish it
with judgment and justice from henceforth even for ever." Listen,
the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. God has set
Himself In His totality of person and power to execute this decree,
what? Behold, a king shall reign. The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit
thou at my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool.
The Lord shall send the rod of his strength out of Zion. That's
Him. To do what? Rule thou in the midst of thine
enemies. And here's the result. Thy people
shall be willing in the day of thy power in the beauties of
holiness. Behold, God has anointed the
King, and He who was anointed to come, listen, He has come.
He has come. The King that shall reign has
come and is now reigning. He is at the right hand of God
and He is ruling all things in the midst of His enemies until
that day He comes with the rod of His vengeance to destroy His
enemies. to destroy them who are in rebellion
against Him, taking vengeance on those who are guilty of treason.
You know, the psalmist said, why did the heathen rage? And
the people imagined a vain thing. You know, people are angry at
this. You know, I'm telling you that Jesus Christ is ruling you.
Tell somebody that. Tell somebody Jesus Christ is
ruling over you and He'll do with you as He pleases. And men
don't like that. But why do you rage against it?
What can you do about it? Nothing. Why do the people imagine
a vain thing? They say, let us break his bands
asunder. Don't you realize people don't
want this? They don't want him to rule.
They say, let's just cast him off. Let's just disobey him. And in disobeying him, you're
only doing what he purposed you to do anyway. So you're not casting
anything off. It's vanity to say such things.
What does it say in Psalm 2? It says, kiss the son lest he
be angry with thee, and you perish in the way. And so now then,
this morning, I'm telling you, this One who has come to reign,
He is reigning right now. And I want us to look at this.
First of all, we're going to look at this verse. We're going to
see the King of Righteousness. God says, Behold, a King shall
reign in righteousness. Now, the ruin of man is the result
of sin. And sin is what? Sin is treason
against God. That's what it is. When Adam
sinned, he said, I will not have God to rule over me. I will do
my own pleasure and not the pleasure of my God. And the result of
that was what? Death. He died spiritually and
then that death and that sin nature has been passed upon all
men. By a representative man, He passed
that death upon us all. Therefore, all the judgment of
men is corrupt. Don't you see that? You don't
see it in just our society, which is probably the best society,
the most just society on the face of the planet, and yet we
still see corruption in our justice system. Somebody defends himself,
self-defense, and they kill a man, And yet if he's of the wrong
color or persuasion, that man's automatically guilty. That's
not justice. But yet a woman can go down to a clinic any day
of the week and kill her child, and they say that's just. There's
no just. Man's idea of justice is not
righteous. Man's rule is not righteous. He's corrupt. We live in a time
when evil is called good, and good is called evil. But look,
if you are a child of the King, if you are a believer in Christ,
there is comfort in this text. There is consolation. You are
children of the King should have strong consolation and hope because
of this. My King rules in righteousness. He reigns in righteousness. What
does that mean? That means that He will do what
is right, what is good. And He'll do this because He
Himself is essentially righteous. Jesus Christ is essentially righteous. He can do no evil. He can do
no evil. He cannot do anything but what
is good and right. That's what His name is, you
know that? The Lord Our Righteousness. That's His name. That's His name. He's essentially good. But we
are what? Essentially evil. But He says
He will rule in righteousness. I'm going to read this to you
here in Psalm chapter 45. God says, I'm indicting a matter
concerning my king. Now, doting a good matter concerning
the king, speaking of Christ here. And in verse 6 it says,
"...thy throne, O God, is forever. Thy scepter and thy kingdom is
a right scepter. Thou lovest righteousness and
hated wickedness. Therefore God, thy God, hath
anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows."
This king is righteous. He's not like any other king.
And so all He does is righteous. And what is the will of this
king? What is the will of this king?
The will of this righteous king is to do His people good. Remember
in Jeremiah 32 and verse 40, He said, I know my thoughts. He said, I will not turn away
from Israel to do them good. My people, I will do them good. In Romans 8 and 28, it says,
"...all things work together for good to them that love God.
To them are they called according to His purpose." Well, here's
a question. Well, Pastor, if Christ rules
over all things, and He does, and He does, if He rules over
all flesh, over the wicked men of this world, and does all things
after the counsel of His own righteous will, then why do the
righteous suffer? Why do the saints suffer and
the wicked prosper? Have you ever asked that question? If He's ruling, then why? Doesn't
this seem to oppose our idea of how things should be? It does. Why then does He not keep me
from sin? He has the power, is that right?
He restrains wicked men. They said the wrath of man shall
praise Him, and the remainder of wrath He shall restrain. So
if He has that power, and He's righteous, and He's good, and
He wants good for us, then why does He allow us to sin? The
simple answer is this, I don't know. I don't pretend to know how the
sovereign God will work all things together for your good. But what I do know is this, He
has, He is, and He shall work all things toward your good.
That's what I know. I know this. He will do this
because Christ is King and Christ reigneth, and Christ will accomplish
His will. And that is His will, to do good
to His people. The Lord now sits on the throne
of God, and on the throne of His people's hearts, and in the
midst of a crooked and perverse world. I don't pretend to understand
the immutable counsel of God, but I know this. that everything
is moving exactly according to His sovereign will. He said this,
I'm God, there's none like Me. Declaring the end from the beginning,
from ancient times, the things that were not yet done, saying,
My counsel shall stand and I will do all My pleasure. Therefore, I know that no one
No one is allowed to touch one of God's saints. No devil in
hell, not even the wicked one himself is able to do anything
unless the King of righteousness ordain it. Got that? You cannot do anything except
it be ordained of God. No one can touch us. No one can
harm us. And listen, whatever He allows,
He allows it for our good. Even though we can't understand
it, we can't see it, we can't rationalize it in our depraved
minds. So no circumstance of time or
event of history, not even the sins of men or even our own sins,
has come to pass unless it was decreed by the sovereign King.
And all He does is righteous and good. And here's something, the psalmist
in Psalm 121, he said this, I lift up mine eyes into the hills from
whence cometh my help. He said, my help cometh from
the Lord, the King, which made heaven and earth. And listen
what the King has decreed, He will not suffer thy foot to be
moved. Listen, if you are believing
in Christ now, listen, the King has decreed, no matter what,
your foot shall not be moved. If you have true God-given faith
and spiritual life, you will not be moved from Christ. I don't
care what happens. No circumstance will hurt you.
God is your help. Nothing will move you. Why? He
is the Keeper. The Lord is thy Keeper. And not
only is He the Keeper of His people, He is the Sustainer. And He is not a far off. He's
not a Keeper far off. He's a Keeper nigh. He's the
shade on your right hand. The sun shall not smite thee
by day nor the... You realize that? The sun can't
touch you unless it will be permitted of God to touch you? Remember
those three Hebrew children in the midst of the fire? That fire
could not touch them. The smoke itself could not even
get into their clothes without His divine permission. This is
what the king in righteousness is doing. Behold the righteous
goodness and grace of the king. Now how do you know he's gracious?
Because the king condescended and humbled himself to bear the
reproach of his people. That's how I know He's my Helper.
Because He came in human flesh to bear my reproach. Understand this, when the King
of all glory hung upon the cross, He said these words in prophecy,
the reproaches of them that reproach thee, listen, fell on me. The
reproaches of them that reproach thee fell on me. It is the sovereign
will of the king that none of his people should perish. In
2 Peter 3 and verse 9, it says that God is not willing that
any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Now we know this, that's not
speaking of all men without exception, but rather it is speaking to
those who are God's, those who belong to this King, those people
that God gave to the King. It is speaking to us who believe
His elect, His chosen people, His sheep. And it was the will of God then not
to impute our sins to us. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. God the King was not willing
that our sins be imputed to us, His people, but rather that He
should bear their reproach. The reproaches of them that reproach
thee. You know what that word reproach
is? It's an active verb. It means to constantly blaspheme. It means to constantly blaspheme.
It is to constantly put off, or expose, or rather try to cast
God down from His throne. It is to rob God of His glory.
That was the reproaches of our nature, of our sin. The reproaches
against God. Christ said the reproaches of
them, the blasphemy of them, the rebellion and treason of
them that reproached God has fallen on me. Has fallen on me. It is cast on me. This word could mean overwhelmed.
Christ was overwhelmed with our blasphemy. Scripture tells us that He was
made sin for us who knew no sin. Why? That we should be made the
righteousness of God in Him. God imputed the reproaches of
His people that reproached Him on Christ the King. And by His
blood their sins were remitted. They were redeemed. They were
atoned for. Therefore, None shall perish. This is the will of the King
of Righteousness. That none of His people should
perish. And He made sure of it. He made sure of it by Him bearing
their sins. All their sins. This was the
decree of God even because He loved us. Behold what manner
of love the Father shed upon us. That we should be called
the sons of God. In Isaiah it tells us to comfort
you. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith the Lord God. For the Lord hath received double
of all her sins. Now how then are sinners comforted
by the sovereign rule of Christ's righteousness? How is it that
we may know that we are His people? How may you know that the King
of Righteousness is determined to do you good? How shall you
know if the King of Righteousness has paid for your sin by His
blood? It's a very simple question.
Have you believed on the Son of God? Have you repented of
your sins and confessed Him by faith to be all your righteousness
before God? Listen to this simple statement.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Listen,
listen, let's break that down. Believe on the Lord. the King. Believe that Christ is King,
that He is Lord, that He is God, very God. Believe on the Lord
Jesus, that He is man, very man, came to be a representative man
of all that the Father gave Him. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
that He by His office of Christ has accomplished the redemption
of His people, and all who believe Him to be King, to be God, to
be man, to be accomplished the redemption as the Christ, listen,
shall be saved. How? By the King of Righteousness.
By the King of Righteousness. So what then is it to believe? To believe is to repent. And
to repent is to believe. Both of these have to be done
at the same time. To believe and to repent. Repentance is
to believe on Christ and turn from one's sins and bow down
in complete surrender to Christ. That's what faith in Christ is.
It is an absolute, utter surrender. That's what it is. It is turning
from your sin to Christ, from your will to His, from your works
to His, from your offerings to His, from your sin, which all
you have is sin, to His righteousness. It is simply receiving His righteousness,
receiving Him. And listen, if anyone is to be
saved, there is no way except this way. All sinners must stack
arms and raise the white flag of surrender. Friends, there
is not a compromise here. There's no compromise. This is
not a negotiation. It must be absolute surrender
to the mercy of Christ as a guilty sinner or nothing at all. You
got that? There's no middle ground here.
A lot of people say, well, I would bow if God would just do this. If God
would just show me a sign. If I could just have a dream.
If He could just speak to me from heaven. What are you doing
when you do that? What do you say when people say,
well, I would believe but I just don't feel guilty enough? I've
heard that. People say, well, I just don't
feel it. I don't feel guilty enough. Listen, you'll never
feel guilty enough. What you are doing now is dictating
the terms of surrender to God. That's what you're doing. You're
dictating terms of surrender. And friends, God will not be
dictated to. These are the terms. Surrender. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. There's the terms. All the qualifications
have been met. You remember that in Luke chapter
14, the Lord says, a king. A king that has 10,000, how shall
he go out to meet him with 20,000? He said, look, what he needs
to do is he needs to set forth an ambassador. He needs to find
the terms of peace. He can't go out against a man
with more. You can't go out against God
with your works and your righteousness. The only terms is this, surrender. Surrender. Cheryl and I were
talking about this the other day. When Jacob was in the midst
of the famine, you remember he sent them out once and they came
back with a bunch of stuff from Joseph. Joseph said, look, unless
you bring back Benjamin, you ain't getting no more. And remember,
Jacob was not willing to let Benjamin go. Benjamin, he loved
that boy as his own soul. And he was not willing to lose
another son. And so the boys are sitting around
and says, we're starving. And he said, we'll go back to
Egypt. He said, we can't go back. Not unless we have Benjamin.
Not unless you surrender that thing that is most precious to
you. Unless you surrender it, we'll
starve to death. And it wasn't until Judah came
and said this, I'll be surety for him. And you remember that
was sufficient. And he let Benjamin go and then
Jacob received all the benefits and blessings of Egypt. He received
all the treasures that God stored up only after he surrendered
Benjamin. Listen, you can only receive
the treasures of righteousness and peace with God and atonement
and redemption and righteousness only as you surrender your soul
and body to Christ. You must surrender everything
to Christ. What did our Lord say? He said
that if a man hate not his father
and his mother and his sister and his brother and anything
else, he cannot be my disciple. Don't you realize we have to
surrender everything? And what is the believer's life but a
constant, absolute, continual surrendering? Isn't that right?
Have you heard that song, I surrender it all? No, not yet. I'm continually
surrendering it all. There's so many things that I've
not yet even known that I've not surrendered. But yet, it's
a constant surrendering to Christ. A constant giving up of the things
of this world and a constant embracing. And only then can
we enjoy the peace and the benefit of Christ. His blessings, only
then can we feed on Him. Everyone who believes bows to
Jesus Christ, and we are saved, listen, from all our sins. We are justified before God.
Not because of our will or works, but because of the grace of God
who chose us, He redeemed us, and He called us to faith and
repentance in Christ. And listen, I know this. I know
because Christ is risen from the dead and reigns over all
the world, that every one of His people will surrender. Every
one. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. Jesus told us this in John 17.
He said, Father, as Thou hast given the Son power over all
flesh for this purpose, that He may give eternal life to as
many as Thou hast given Him. And what is this eternal life?
That they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
the King of righteousness, whom You have sent. Jesus the King, He prays for
all His people. Now He doesn't pray for the whole
world. We know that He said, I pray not for the world, but
them which Thou hast given Me out of the world. And He said,
Father, keep them. Now this is not only the will
of the King to do you good. It's not only the will of the
King to bear your reproach. It is not only the will of the
King to call you to surrender. It is the will of the King to
keep you. until you enter into the eternal
kingdom. He said, Father, keep them. Keep them whom you have given
me. Believer in Christ, let us now
see that Christ, our Savior and King, has given us a pardon,
mercy, grace, peace, life, heaven, Atonement, and constant intercession,
and the immutable love of God, and we can never be taken from
Him. Never be taken. Our King said this, My sheep
hear My voice, and I know them, and I give unto them eternal
life. You got that? He gives it. Now who will take
it away? Who? Who would merit Him giving
it? None. Who would take it away?
None. He's the King. is the king. Now secondly, and I want to move
hurriedly here on this last one, the princes. You see, the king
shall reign in righteousness, but notice this, And princes
shall rule in judgment. Who are these princes? That's
the first question. And second of all, what is their
judgment they rule by? First of all, the princes, these
are meant by preachers of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now I
know this, all believers are kings and priests unto our God.
But this is meant by preachers, and I'm going to explain this,
this is meant by preachers and pastors. who preach the gospel. These are they that are called
of God, who have been given charge, given rule over His church in
His stead. And I want you to know that this
is, I know people when they hear things like that, they clench
up. They clench up. Ah! No! No! But rather you should see this
as a gift. It's not intended for a preacher to be a hard thing
or a cruel thing, someone to lord over you, or to try to get your money and get you to
get out there and work for Him. No, that's not what we're here
for. Rather, you should see this as a gift. Go to Ephesians chapter
4. Go to Ephesians chapter 4. See this. That preachers are
a gift. Ephesians chapter 4. And look
at verse 8. Wherefore he saith, when he ascendeth
up on high to be king, what did he do? He led captivity captive
and gave gifts unto men. What are these gifts? Verse 11.
He gave some apostles. That's a gift, isn't it? We have
this Word of God because He gave apostles. And these apostles
wrote this Word. He gave some prophets. We have
these Old Testament Scriptures by the prophets. Isn't that wonderful?
Isn't that a gift? And look, some evangelists. He
sent forth men that had the power of the Spirit. He sends forth
missionaries throughout the world as evangelists. And listen, some
pastors and teachers. Now what are these for? For the
perfecting of the saints. For the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ, you'll all come in
unity of faith. and of the knowledge of the Son
of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure, the stature, the
fullness of Christ, that you henceforth be no more children
tossed to and fro, carried about by every wind of doctrine, by
the slight of men and the cunning craftiness whereby they lie in
wait to deceive. But speaking the truth, now he's
speaking to pastors, teachers, evangelists, apostles, those
that he gave, speaking the truth, listen, in love, may grow up
unto him in all things, which is the head, even Christ." We
who are his preachers, we are sent as ambassadors. Paul said, we are ambassadors
for Christ. What is an ambassador? Does an
ambassador have any power of his own? Does he have any authority
of his own? He has only the authority of
the king that sent him. And he can only say what the
king told him to say. Otherwise, he would not be a
faithful ambassador if he started making things up. Then he would be usurping authority,
wouldn't he? You see, I'm not here to make
things up. I am an ambassador simply to
rule in this manner. To only tell you what the king
says. And therefore, you should obey
my gospel because it is not mine, but His. That's why you should
listen to me. That's why you should obey my
gospel. It's because it is His. We are
ambassadors. And what is our ambassador? We
beseech you. In Christ's stead, be you reconciled
to God. What a privilege and responsibility
it is to speak for Christ. I know that if I were to think
about it, it would probably crush me. If I could really comprehend
what I'm called to do, it would really crush every man that's
doing it. But it is a privilege and honor, responsibility, for
the King reigns over all flesh. And our rule in judgment, what
is this but the gospel of Jesus Christ? This is how we rule,
only by preaching the gospel. Jesus Christ in Christ. The sole
purpose of pastors is to care for the church. To seek your
good. To seek your growth. That you
be fed. That sinners come. That we should
be lovers of men's souls. We should desire everyone who
hears us to believe and to bow. And so when I tell people, I
didn't say come up here with me. Come down here with me. Come
down with me and bow with me before His feet. This is our
rule, purpose of pastors, to care, to feed you, to instruct
you, to love you, to be concerned for your spiritual well-being
as ones that must give account unto God. That's what Paul says
in Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 7, verse 17, sorry,
verse 17. For you know that afterward,
when he would have I'm sorry, that's... I'm in the wrong passage. Okay. There it is. "...Obey them
that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves, for they
watch for your souls, as they that must give an account, that
they may do it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable
for you." I don't want to do this with grief. I want everyone
to believe. I want all to come to repentance.
I want all to come to Christ. And so this is my charge as ruling
over you. Preach the Word. Be instant in season, out of
season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering. Why? This is the will of God that
we preach the Word. Constantly. How do we reprove,
rebuke, and exhort you? By preaching the Gospel. By preaching
the Gospel. We speak out against sin. We
long for men to obey Christ and yield to Him. And we exhort you
by comforting you through the gospel of Christ's love and righteousness. Would to God that every one of
us should bow in our hearts even now. If I could have anything, that
would be it. That every one of us should bow
before His feet and hold fast by faith to Him. And if any man
will hear me, if any man will obey my gospel, I know this,
there is no power in this man. You did that because of God's
grace and mercy to you. We have persuaded you, knowing
this, it was God who did the work. It was God who did the
work. Now pastors are given to rule
over the church, not as lords, but as servants. With one message,
of our Lord Jesus Christ, we should preach it in the spirit
of meekness and love and humility, seasoned with grace. This is
how we rule. Only by preaching this gospel
as your servants. As your servants. Paul said,
we preach not ourselves. Why? That we're not anything
but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your servants. And
so what are our judgments? Go back to this, and I'm going
to have to be real quick. This is our message. Look at
verse 2. Here's our message of every prince. A man shall be
a hiding place from the wind. Now, it wouldn't have been anything
for him to say God is a hiding place, right? That's many times
in Scripture we read that. God is our refuge. The Lord God
is our shelter. The Lord God is our high tower.
But notice he says, a man. A man is our refuge. Listen, children of God, The
living God, our King, is not a king far off, but nigh, even
because He has become a man. He became a man. He is touched with the feelings
of our infirmities. Do you hurt? Do you feel pain? Do you feel suffering? Do you
feel grief? Do you feel sorrow? How much
more, Christ? Have you been mocked? How much
more, Christ? Do you feel sorrow? How much
more Christ? Have you been betrayed? How much
more Christ? He is one touch with the feelings
of our infirmities. Our King is a man. And notice,
He is a place of safety. A wind from the wind. He is a
refuge from the wind. What? The wind of God's justice.
What a refuge from the wind of God's justice, from the wind
of death, from the wind of sin. Why? He says this, I will remember
your sins and iniquities no more. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. O
death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
How can the wind touch you if you are in Christ? This man is
a shelter from the wind. And not only the wind, what about
the wind of our guilt and shame? Our sorrows and griefs. He is a shelter, a protection.
Listen to this, Jesus is a place of resting, a covert from the
tempest. Now, a hurricane, in a hurricane,
Which is better? A brand new house or a very old mountain? Which is better? A house that had never been tested
by a storm or a mountain that had been tested for centuries?
And not only just on the mountain. I'm talking about a covert. He's
talking about in a mountain. How safe is that? A covert, he
says, from the tempest. The tempest of our doubts, our
fears, our sorrows, our griefs, our pains. Listen, Christ is
a sure thing. He is a sure foundation. And
listen, Jesus is also a refreshment. Look at this, He is rivers of
water and a dry place. Not a pond or a lake. Not some
water that could become stagnant. You know what a pond in a desert
would do? Pretty soon the sand would just
cover it up. But He says not a pond. He's talking about an
ever-flowing river. in a desert. Is there anything
more valuable in a desert than a river? Nothing. It's everything. It's refreshment for our souls.
Do you need refreshment? The King of Righteousness is
a river. A river of what? A river of cleansing. A river
of refreshment for our souls. And lastly, He is this, He is
a great rock in a weary land. Christ is a great rock. a shadow
that protects us from the heat of the sun, the heat of God's
wrath and judgment. And I like this. You remember
the people of Israel? And they walked in that desert. What followed them? Rock. Everywhere they went, that same
rock. Isn't that something? They'd go, they'd walk over here
and they'd say, Wasn't that rock over there? That rock followed
Him. And Paul said this, that rock
is Christ. Jesus is a rock in a weary land. Isn't He? He's the man that is
a refuge from the wind. He is a culvert, a mountain against
the tempest. He is a river in a dry place.
He is a rock in a weary land. Why? He's the King of Righteousness. And His princes will preach Him. That's how they rule in judgment.
They preach Christ. Any man that does not preach
only Christ and always preach Christ is not sin of Christ. My, his princes are ruling judgment.
They preach him, the man, Christ Jesus. Would to God you'd surrender. May God even now make you all
surrender and worship him.