Isaiah chapter 32. We'll be looking
at the first couple of verses this morning. The title of the message is,
A King and His Princes. A king and his princes. Behold, a king shall reign in
righteousness and his princes shall rule in judgment. This is one of many prophecies
in the Old Testament concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, the coming
one, the one that was appointed of God to restore all that our
Father lost when he fell into sin. Paradise. friends, was lost. Communion with God was lost. Spiritual life was lost at the
fall. Wherefore, as by one man, sin
entered into the world, and death by sin So death passed upon all men,
for all have sinned." The prophecy then of God in mercy
was that a Savior should come. This is the beginning of hope.
This is the beginning of hope. If you know this, that Adam was
given no promise, no promise of hope after He had been given
the commandment not to eat of the fruit. He said, the day thou
eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. God didn't say, and when
you die, I'll come down and I'll give you a promise. No, God purposed
that, but Adam had no hope of that. He had no reality, no word
from God. But God came in mercy and said
this, the seed of the woman, Is that not amazing? The seed
of the woman shall crush the head of the serpent, and he shall bruise his heel. This is a definite prophecy concerning
the victory over sin, over death, and over Satan, the father of
lies, the murderer from the beginning. This was the promise that one
would come from the seed of the woman and he would crush sin. He would do away with sin. He
would bring in righteousness. Whereas man brought in sin, this
man was to bring in righteousness. He was to bring it in by a bruised
heel, which is speaking of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Truly, Christ was crushed at
the cross by the wrath of God. And this was what God had purposed
before. He had purposed to redeem us,
to redeem sinners, to heal our dead spiritual condition. And
by His victory over our enemies, by His obedience and satisfaction
of God's law, He should bring many sons. to glory. The scripture says that he has
made the captain of our salvation perfect. Perfect. Christ is the perfect Redeemer. He is the one that God has purposed
to come. And in this text, he is pictured
for us as a king. A king. Now, we don't have much idea
of what a king is, do we? None of us have ever lived under
the reign of any monarch. We live in what we suppose to
be a republic. But we know that that's not necessarily
true. But I know this. Ever since the
collapse of the Roman Empire, there's never been one king to
control all the earth. Why is that? Why is that? How much more powerful are we
than the Romans ever dreamed of being? And yet we don't dominate
the earth, and neither does anyone else our equal. Why? Because God decreed it. Because
God had already said this in the Old Testament. He had already
determined that there be no more kings when this king should come. In Daniel's prophecy, if you
remember, King Nebuchadnezzar, he had that dream of the image,
the statue, the vision, and the head was of gold and the chest
and the arms were of silver, the stomach and the thighs were
of brass, the legs were of iron and the feet were of iron and
clay. Remember that image? Easy to
see, isn't it? The head, Daniel said, is the
interpretation. He said the head, the gold head,
was Nebuchadnezzar, his kingdom. And then comes an inferior metal,
not gold, silver. That's the Medes and the Persians
who came into rule after the Babylonians. And then came in
the Grecian kingdom, which was the bronze kingdom. And then
came the iron kingdom of the Roman Empire. But in the Roman Empire, we can
clearly see, if anybody just studies history a little bit,
that at the end of this empire, it began to crumble, begin to
kind of mesh into something. And the more they tried to hold
it together, The more it started to fall apart. Why? Well, because
you can't mix clay and iron. You can't have a monarch, an
emperor and a senate. It doesn't work. It doesn't work. When was this prophesied? Was
this not hundreds of years before these kingdoms came into existence? Absolutely. God had determined
them to rise in power. They rose in power. And God says
when the stone that is made without hands comes. That was the next
part of the vision is that stone that was taken out without hands. The stone was cast at the feet
of iron and clay. And when that stone hit the foot
of that image, it all fell down and became like dust. See, the gold kingdom fell just
as much as the iron and clay. And the Scripture says, a great
wind came and carried it away. Can you not see these things
being of Christ? Can you not see He is the stone
that the builders rejected, who has become the head of the corner? He is the foundation of God's
church. He is the foundation of our souls. He is God's King. And when He
came, He destroyed all other kings to reign over this world, and the wind The Spirit came and filled his church and is
now moving about, is now moving about saving whomsoever he will. Friends, this stone, this stone
that was made without hands, what happened to it? The Scripture
says it became an exceeding great mountain that covered the whole
earth. You see, when Christ Jesus was
to come, he was to destroy all other kingdoms so that he might
establish his everlasting dominion over all things, over all people. God has appointed friends a king. Now, God didn't ask you to vote
for who you'd like to be king. God really didn't care about
our opinion concerning this matter. Otherwise, it would not have
been Christ. None of us would have accepted
the rule of Christ. None of us. But God says he's
my king and I've put him over all flesh. Psalm chapter 110, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou. Notice this is not a question.
Will you please sit down here? No. Sit thou at my right hand
until I make your enemies your footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of
his strength out of Zion. Rule thou! Where? Where is Christ to rule? In the
midst of thy enemies. Oh, what power! to set up shop in the middle
of your enemies. What other king could do that? But the Lord Jesus Christ, who
came in the midst of his enemies and set up his kingdom in spite
of their hatred, in spite of their defiance against him, he
is king. He is your king. He is your king. He is your king. He is your king. You better hear your ruler. You better hear your ruler. God has set him above you and
you will answer to him. Men can shout. They can puff themselves up with
all the education that they desire to in this world. They can take this book. They
can burn it as they've done over the centuries. They can cut it
out piece by piece until they have what they think they want
out of this book. But it does not matter. Christ
is King. God made him so. God made him
so. Thy people. Not only did he make him a king,
God, he gave him a people. Isn't that wonderful? He said,
thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. Truly, I was not willing. Truly, I rebelled against God.
Truly, I said, I will not have this man to rule over me. But praise God, He ruled in the
midst of His enemies, and He took this enemy. He took this enemy in the day
of His power, and I was gladly willing to be His people. The Scripture does not say, I
will be your God. And you shall. You shall be my people. Is there any question here? Is
God asking questions? Is he is he asking for inviting
people? No, God is demanding. God commands and it happens. This is the God that rules us. This is the God we worship. This
is the sovereign monarch of the universe who does with men as
he pleases. He is glorious, triumphant, victorious. He's not a failure like men would
hope him to be. Christ is no failure. Christ
is successful. God has already determined him
to be successful. God says, behold my anointed
King. And friends, this King who was
to come here, this King who was prophesied here, I tell you by
the authority of the Word of God that he has already come. He has already come. And He is now, this morning,
He is now reigning over all things. A beautiful day the other day,
I sat at my window and I watched the leaves fall. And every leaf that fell, it
fell according to His sovereign will. It fell exactly as He determined
it to fall. Is that not beyond our understanding? Is that not beyond our comprehension? I'm having trouble chewing gum
and walking at the same time. Yet my King rules over all my
life. Everything that has happened
in my life has been predestinated by the God of heaven. Praise
His name. Praise His name. God is ruling. Christ is ruling
all, even over His enemies. He is the rod of God's strength.
And he will take vengeance on all the guilty. He will have justice. This is not like any other king
that we've ever heard about. This is not like any other king
that we've ever seen or any government we've ever seen. This king shall
reign in righteousness. Is that not wonderful? Is that
not what men think they're striving for all the time, is for a righteous
government so that everything would be right and good? Men have no idea what righteousness
is. But I'll tell you, He is coming
and He will reign in righteousness. And everyone who is not righteous,
the scripture says, kiss the son lest he be angry with thee. This is a very serious thing. When Christ comes again, he will
reign in all sinners, all sin. He will reign in all sinners,
and he will take them like a person takes a pile of sticks, and he
will burn them. You know, I really don't understand
the full gravity of hell. But I know this, what hell is,
is dying forever. It is a torment beyond belief. Because I'll tell you right now,
even though if you're not a believer in Christ, you are sustained
because God sustains you. God has given you some mercies
today, but in hell, there is no mercy. There is no mercy. the ruin of us all, truly began
by our father Adam and continues to this day. We live in such an evil time
that all guilt, all guilt is subject to circumstance. Isn't that right? Don't we judge
by circumstance? Of course we do. I've heard this
the other day. A 91-year-old man, this guy came
in and robbed him, and the old man had a gun and he shot the
intruder. He shot the intruder. Well, the
intruder lived and is now suing the man he robbed. Is that righteousness? Is that justice? Absolutely not,
and everyone here knows it. And we're just we're sinners.
We know that's not right. But yet a woman, a woman can
kill her unborn child and call it a gift or a right of God. That's how that's how this world
operates. That's how men rule in this world. But the children of the king.
If you are a child of God, if you are a believer in Christ,
you can take comfort no matter what this world does. You can
take comfort no matter how these judges rule or how these presidents
or kings reign. We don't find comfort or peace
in them. We find comfort and peace. Behold,
a king shall reign. Our King reigns in righteousness. We can take strong comfort, not
in what we see, but in God's promises. If you want any comfort, you've
got to look at God's promises. You've got to hold fast to God's
promises. God says, His king will rule
in righteousness. The Lord Jesus Christ, therefore,
is the only righteous king. Why? Because he himself is righteousness. Righteousness is not something
you do. It's something that Christ is. You see, there's no middle ground
for righteousness. Either you are or you aren't.
You can't kind of be righteous. You can't kind of be holy. You
are either holy or you are not holy. There is no middle ground. We see Jesus Christ is not righteous
because of his actions. He is righteous because that's
who he is. And do you realize that there
is no other righteousness but Him? The Scripture calls Him the Lord,
our righteousness. He is righteousness. Well, Pastor, if Christ rules
all things, like you say, and He rules over wicked men, and
He does whatsoever He pleases, and His will is righteous and
always good, then why is it that the wicked prosper and the
righteous suffer? Why? Why does God, why does Christ
not deliver His people from suffering? Why does he allow the wicked
men to have all the things of this world given to them, and
the people of God are impoverished in suffering, in pain, in deep
sorrow, lamenting all the time and full of grief? Why is that? Friends, I don't pretend to know
how the sovereign Lord God will work out good for his people,
but I know this, he will." How do I know he will? Not by these. I will not see
it with my eyes. I do not see the righteousness
of Christ ruling if I were to look at circumstances. I wrote in your bulletin this
morning, Don't confuse God's gracious tokens of care for his
grace. Don't confuse the two. If God
gives his people health and success in this world, that is not evidence
of grace. And if God makes a man poor,
one of his own poor, and starving to death, that is not a measure
of his hatred. Faith is the only evidence of
grace. You see, we don't look to what
we do. We look to our King. We look to Christ by faith. And His Word says that He shall work all things. He will work all things together. for good to them who love God,
to them who are the called according to his purpose. How do I know
he'll work all things? One, he's righteous. Two, he
said so. He said so. And everything is moving exactly
as he wills it to move. No one, believer in Christ, because
our King reigns, no one And nothing will be able to touch you without
his permission. Is that not comforting? You see, if your king has no
power, you have no comfort. But my king has all power. And he said this, the sun shall
not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. If God willed
it so, the sun in the midday would not even touch me. if it
was His will. Satan cannot do one thing, this
body cannot do one thing to us, to harm us, unless it is allowed
of our king. So your suffering, believer,
your trials, your difficulties, they are a gift. not a reason to complain. They're
a gift. Because God will only give us
what is good. We see this by faith in Him.
No circumstance of time or event in history will come to pass,
or has come to pass, or will come to pass, unless it is by
the good pleasure of Jesus Christ. And behold, the righteousness
and goodness of God, to condescend himself, to bear the reproach of his people. You see, when God decreed him
to be king, there was a price. There was a price. And from eternity
he was willing to pay it. He was willing to redeem his
people. In Psalm chapter 69, it says,
"...the reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on
me." The shame of them that reproached thee, God. That word reproach is different
from the first one. The first one means shame. The
second one means to pull off. In other words, to expose. The
reproaches, the shameful, blasphemous behavior of them that tried to
rob you of your glory, that reproach thee fell on me, which was Christ. The loving grace of the Father,
friends, is clearly seen in his sovereign desire that none should
perish. The Scripture says that none
should perish, but all come to repentance. Wait a second, if
he's king, how come not all come to repentance? What does he mean?
He said none shall perish, but there's people that are going
to perish. This has not meant all men without
exception. Friends, when our Savior bore
the reproach of his people, that's exactly what he did. He bore
the reproach of his people and nobody else. Nobody else. God imputed all of our sins to our faith. Can you tell me
of one king who has done such a great thing as to bear the
reproaches of his subjects? Not one. Only Christ. Only Christ condescended to men
of low estate. And now he is risen. Do you believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you repented of your sins
and confessed them by faith to be all your righteousness and
salvation? To believe on Christ and repent
is nothing less than surrender. Surrender. Have you surrendered
to the King? Let me make it very plain for
you. If you will not surrender now, you will in eternity. Jesus is not asking to be your
King. He is. Bow down. Let go of your stubborn will
your pride, your arrogancy, and bow to Christ. And we have this promise that
everyone who comes to Him, He will in no wise cast you out. Why? It's definitely not because
we don't deserve to be cast out, we deserve that. But friends, he does so for his
own namesake. He does so because he is king
and he wills to do so. Everyone that believes bows,
and everyone that bows shall not be cast out. Behold, the
King is now reigning. Have you bowed before your King? Have you surrendered? Because I'll tell you this, there
is joy and peace for everyone that is under this King. Everyone
who believes in this King. One day, all sin will be done
away with. We won't have any more of these
evil men to rule over this world, but we'll have one righteous
King, and we will praise Him forever in joy and peace, in
unity, in love. I can't wait to the day I love
him like I should. And I can't wait to the day that
I love you like I should. That day is fast approaching.
It's coming. And so when we hear the message
of King Reigns, we're happy. I'm happy that he reigns. I'm
happy. Are you? I pray that God would comfort
you, strengthen you to know that our God reigns, give you fresh
courage, face the troubles and trials
of this life. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed
in prayer.