Alright, take your Bibles and
turn with me to Psalm chapter 48. Psalm chapter 48, this evening
we'll be looking at verses 11 through verse 14. Psalm chapter 48, verse 11 through
verse 14. The title of the message tonight
is, The Joy of Judgment. The Joy of Judgment. Verse 11 says, Let Mount Zion
rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad because of thy
judgments. Walk about Zion, and go round
about her, tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider
her palaces, that ye may tell it to the generation following.
For this God is our God forever and ever. He will be our guide
even unto death. Let Mount Zion rejoice. Here again, we see the picture
of the beautiful city of God. As we've been going through this,
we've seen the city of God and how it is surrounded by God's
holiness, how it is surrounded and protected. It is a refuge
for all of God's people, and how that God will destroy all
of those who set themselves against this holy city of God's church. Mount Zion is God's church. When this speaks of Mount Zion,
it speaks of you and me who are believers in Christ. This is
God's Word to us. To us, to His church. He says,
let my church... Rejoice. Let my church be glad. Be glad. We know this, that our only rest,
our only comfort is in the city of our great King, Jesus Christ.
We know that. In Him there is rest, in Him
there is comfort, and there is joy. We know that we cannot attain
God's holiness by our works, by our religion, or by our will. We only know that we have God's
holiness by the Mediator, Jesus Christ. He is the only God-man
mediator. There is no other mediator. I
know I have people who have no idea anything about Christ. And they keep saying, you know,
well, don't say that around the preacher. Don't say that it's
around the preacher. Like I'm some different kind of person
than they are, because I'm a preacher. I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner saved
by grace. You see, they think that there's
something in me that can help them. No, I can't help you. I
can only point you to the One who can. Christ. He's the only
One God has sent to save sinners. And Jesus Christ has come and
accomplished all our salvation. He is all our salvation. Cheryl and I were talking earlier
and she had quoted this, that Jesus is the only heaven. There is. He's heaven. He's heaven to me. He's heaven
to me. He is our righteousness. And
we know this, that since He's accomplished His salvation, we
know this, that God will gather all of His people. Not one person
that God has chosen and Christ has redeemed will be lost. He will gather them all. And there's not one that will
be missing. Look over there at Psalm 50 and
verse 3. It says, "...our God shall come."
and He shall not keep silence. A fire shall devour before Him,
and it shall be a very tempestuous round about Him. He shall call
to the heavens above and to the earth, that He may judge His
people. Gather My saints together unto
Me, those that have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice. And the heavens shall declare
His righteousness, For God is Judge Himself." You see, God
has called His people with an eternal calling. We have been
called from eternity in the purpose of God. He has put us in Christ. He has justified us. He has glorified
us from all eternity. And He will call us. He will
call us. And everyone for whom Christ
died will be brought in. Christ has come and He has made
Himself an offering for sin. And God has accepted His offering. So then there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that can
remove us from this great city. There is nothing that can move
us from God's salvation. Nothing. Praise God, not even
me. Not even me. Therefore, in verse
11, it tells us who are in this city of Zion, who rest in the
security of Jesus Christ. God tells us His church, Judah,
be glad because of the judgments of God. Rejoice. Rejoice. Be happy. Is that not clear enough? Be
joyful. Be happy. The joy of this world,
friends, and the pleasures of this life can never give us lasting
happiness. It never can. That is not to say we shouldn't
enjoy the things God has given us. Everything you have is a
gift of God. Everything we have, God is not begrudging of anything
that He gives us. Many times we view God to be
like ourselves, stingy. God's not stingy. God is gracious. He is merciful. He sustains us
every day of our life. Even when we were rebels, He
sustained us and gave us all that we had. And God says, enjoy
what I give you. It's yours. I give it to you.
It's yours. Enjoy it. Just don't be a slave
to it. Don't be a slave to what God
gives you. Rejoice in Christ. We rejoice
in God. We don't rejoice in the things
of this world. Why? They don't last. They don't
last. And if the Lord takes everything
we got, let us be like Job and say, the Lord gave it and the
Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Now I'll tell you what, if we can do that, You know, it doesn't
matter what we have or what we don't have. We're content. We're
content to be found in Christ alone. But I'll tell you, everyone whose
joy rests in the things of this earth, in the riches of this
world, in the families, even in our families, the things that...
I know that this country is about wealth, but there's a lot of
people who are just interested in their family. They think their
family is going to give them joy. That their family will give
them peace. But these pleasures are fleeting. They're fleeting. The other day, I did enjoy a
special time with my family. But you know what? That's past.
That's gone. I only have a distant memory,
maybe even a small feeling, and that feeling won't be there tomorrow,
I'm sure. It'll be replaced. You see, there's
nothing in this world that lasts. There's no happiness here. There's
no joy here. There's no gladness to be had
in the things of this world. They just won't make you happy. The only lasting joy and happiness
is found in Jesus Christ. He is joy. He is peace. He is our Savior. Now what does this mean? Does
this mean that every believer is going to walk around smiling
all the time and laughing? No. If he is, he's putting on
a show. I'm telling you. If we're walking
around all the time happy and smiling, most of the time I'm
sure we're putting on a show for other people. The believer's
life is marked with suffering and trials, difficulties, The
believer's life is full of trouble. And everyone and everything in
this world hates the gospel and the Christ that we love. This world hates believers in
Christ. Hates believers in Christ. But because our joy is not of
this world, we may have lasting happiness. Our joys are not found
in anyone or anything in this world other than Christ. He is
the joy of our hearts. He is the joy of our hearts.
Do you need joy? Do you need happiness? So I'll
tell you what, this life can bring us down very quickly. We
can be up on top one minute and at the bottom the next. We need
constant joy. We need something sustaining
us through this life. And it is the joy of the Lord,
the joy of Christ. It sustains us. It's all around you falling apart.
Flee to Christ. Run to Him and grab a hold with
both arms and never let go. And you'll find joy unspeakable
and full of glory. Joy unspeakable and full of glory. What then is the cause of this
joy? We are believers in Christ. We know that Christ is our joy.
What is the cause? Why do we joy in Christ? What
is our enjoyment of the Savior? Well, it's found in this, in
our text, "...let Mount Zion rejoice, and the daughters of
Judah be glad, because of thy judgments." And I'll tell you,
when I read that Scripture, I had no idea what it meant. That just
didn't make any sense to me. When the word judgment comes
to our ears, it is not a pleasant, joyful word. I mean, you don't
hear people say, I'm going to judgment today. No. You know, I've got a court appointment
and I'm telling you, I'm guilty, I'm just going to go up here
and it's just going to be great. Nobody says that. Nobody says
that because when judgment, when that word comes to a man's ears,
immediately his conscience, rings with alarm because he knows he's
guilty. We know we are guilty. We know that God must punish
all sin. We know this. Natural man despises
it. But we as believers, we know
this. And even when we hear the word judgment, we cringe at times. We cringe because we know this
that we have sinned. Go to 1 Peter chapter 4. 1 Peter
chapter 4. God will judge all men. He will punish all sins. But
let me tell you this. You know where judgment begins?
It begins with the believer. It begins with the house of God. Read this in 1 Peter 4 and verse
17. It says, "...for the time is come
that judgment must begin at the house of God." Isn't that striking? That judgment begins at the house
of God? Judgment begins at the house
of God, and if it first began at us, what shall the end be
of them that obey not the gospel of God?" In this judgment of God, the
judgment of God, the judgment of all believers, We are to rejoice in this, that
God has judged us already. God has already made a judgment,
a ruling. And you know what He says about
every one of His house? His judgment is this, you are
justified. That's God's eternal judgment
for His house. Justified. That word simply means
innocent of all charges. Innocent. Innocent of all charges. All sin. Not guilty. Not guilty. Who rejoice? We might rejoice
in God's judgment for many reasons. But we can rejoice in this, first
of all, that this judgment, that our justification was from all
eternity. Go to Romans 8. This judgment
has already taken place in eternity in the purpose of God. Romans 8.28, we know this well. He says, We know that all things
work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
the called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that
He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
He did predestinate, them He also called. And whom He called,
them He also justified. And whom He justified, them He
also glorified." Friends, our justification, our calling, our
justification, and our glorification are so sure because they were
the purpose and decree of God. God purposed them for us. God already made His judgment.
He made His judgment by putting us in Christ before the foundation
of the world. That we might be holy and without
blame before Him. In love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ. This was all before the world
began. In Christ Jesus. Was there any
sin? In Him? No. Never. Never. He was the eternal
Son of God. He was pure. And guess what?
You and I who believe were in Him. And if there's no sin in
Him, we had no sin in Him. God had already made His judgment.
But this is very clear. Not only in eternity. but it's
made very clear to us by the cross. We may rejoice in this. Our judgment is passed because
Jesus Christ has died on the cross for our sins. Judgment
is passed. Though God decreed our holiness
in Christ, yet we were born dead in sins. We were born sinners.
Born guilty. I know this. I am a sinner. I know that. I know that. I know I was born dead in sins
as every other man. I know I did not deserve anything
from God but hell. I broke God's law and my sin must be punished.
My sin must be punished with the strictest justice of God. And you know what? So should
yours. Our sin will be punished. But the joy and peace that we
have is this. Our sins have already been punished. They have already been taken
from us. by the holy transaction of God
Almighty. Go to 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians
chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, beginning
in verse 19. It says, "...to wit that God was
in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, charging, not imputing their
trespasses unto them. Now, is that not great? And hath committed unto us the
word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you,
in Christ's stead, be you reconciled to God. He hath made Him to be
sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him." If God's not going to impute your sins to
you, and God is just, who then will He charge them with? How
will God be just and the justifier of the ungodly? Only by making
Him to be sin for us. That's it. This is a transaction only between
the Father and the Son. This transaction runs deeper
than the human mind could ever fathom, because we know nothing. We know nothing of imputed sins
and imputed righteousness in our existence. Now, I tell you
this, JD, you commit a murder. And you're guilty. Now, I'll
tell you what, the law demands that you die. And even if the
law would allow me to die in your stead, I still couldn't
remove the fact that you were guilty. Yet God, in this transaction,
not only removes our debt, our payment of death and hell, He
also removes the guilt of our sins. By taking the guilt and
putting it on His Son, and charging Him with our sins, and pouring
out His judgment on His own Son so that we might go free. So
that we might be free from the curse of the law. Scripture says
He was made a curse for us. Now I can't fathom and I can't
begin to understand How the sinless, perfect, absolute Son of God
could be made a curse, but God said He was. And He was done so because God
must judge sin. And praise God we may rejoice
because He has judged all our sins. Judgment is past. And God, being the judge of all
men, was satisfied with His own offering. God made His own offering. One that we could never make. He made it when He offered Himself. The Scripture says that God purchased
His church with His own blood. God can bleed. The God-man can. The God-man did. And God accepted
him. And everyone in him God accepted. The hammer, the gavel is already
fallen. Not guilty. That's what God says
about His church. Not guilty. Not guilty. Somebody, I know when I was growing
up, they used to say the word justified means just as if I
never sinned. No, it's more than that. You
never sinned. In the eyes of Almighty God,
we are absolutely free from all sin. Is that not joy? May God give
us grace to believe it, to trust Him. His judgment is true. His judgment is right. And friends,
God's judgment, second of all, we may rejoice because God's
judgment is just. Now, I'll tell you what, if I
come up to you and say, well, you know, your sins are forgiven.
You don't trust me. Why? I'm not just. I'm just a
sinner like you. But God says it. God says those
who believe in Christ are just. If God were like us, we'd have
reason to be fearful, right? If God says your sins are gone
and He was like us, then you'd have reason to fear. And I'll
tell you, the false religions' God is just like that. He's unjust. Why? Because they believe that
their Christ died for all of the sins of all men, and yet
God will still throw them in hell. That's unjust. God can't demand twice payment. That's not just. It's not right. I know if we got a ticket and
we paid that fine, I know this, if they charged us again, we'd
be upset. Why? They're unjust. They're
wrong. God is not unjust. God will never
demand payment from us. Never demand payment from us. These chastisements, these troubles
are not payment for sin. They never are and never will
be. Only Christ's blood pays for
sin. There is no peace in false religion. There is only peace in Christ
who has taken away our sins. Believer, we are free from the
law and its curse through the judgment and justice of God. I like this song, Once For All. Oh sinner, receive it. Once for
all. Oh brother, believe it. Cling
to the cross. Your burden will fall. Christ
hath redeemed us once for all. Once for all. It is only by Jesus
Christ, it is only by faith in Him, that the judgment of God
may be a joy. If you find the judgment of God
anywhere else but in Him, there's no joy. There's no joy. But in Him it's joy. In Him it's
joy. Notice this also. Go back to
your text. I just want an aside on this last part here. It says,
"...the daughters of Judah be glad." This word, daughters of
Judah, it means the little cities. Not only the big cities, the
little cities be glad. What is that dealing with? The
Lord is teaching us that not only those who have been believers
for many years have this judgment passed, But I'll tell you, if
you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ right now, your judgment
is passed just as surely as mine is. Your judgment is passed just
as surely as any other believer in Christ. From either the newborn
babe or the elder in Christ. Both receive the same gift. The forgiveness of sins. Pardon
of sins. And it doesn't matter if our
faith is weak or our faith is strong, we still have pardon for sin. We still are justified before
God. We can't ruin it. Isn't that just wonderful? That's the joy of the ages, that
no one else can ruin it for us either. Because God has made
the judgment. God has paid the fine. And God
has accepted His own sacrifice. What then do we have to fear
about judgment? If God is just and a justifier,
we who believe, we should look forward to judgment. Judgment
Day should be an enjoyable day because it is the day that God
declares to everyone that His church is justified. There is a coming day that He
will gather us to Himself. Not because of us, Lord, no. Not because of us. but because of grace, because
He would love us, because He would pardon our sins. Jesus says, I go. You believe
in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to
prepare a place for you, and if I go to prepare a place for
you, I will no doubt come again and receive you unto Myself." Do you think for one minute that
Christ would die for sins and not come and get us? No way. He's coming. Blessed be the day of His coming. I know that this joy doesn't
always come to mind, does it? How then is this joy restored? I know that many times we sin
and feel as though God left us. Today in my office I could have I tell you, you could have cut
out my eyesight and it wouldn't have been any darker. I felt
as though I had nobody. I felt as though my sin was so
great that God had left me. When we have our sin and it overwhelms
us, our fear and doubts come in, and we're not able to rejoice. We're not able to rejoice because
we still contend with this old man, this old man of sin, and
at times we lose sight of our joy and peace. David did that. Remember when David sinned? And
flip over one page, you'll see it. Psalm 51. Look what he says. In verse 10
he says, Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right
spirit within me. Cast me not away from Thy presence,
and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the
joy of Thy salvation. You see, he needed to be restored.
That joy needed to be restored. Well, how does that happen? Look
at your text quickly. First of all, this joy is restored
when He says, walk about Zion and go round about her. Now that
sounds simple, right? You know how the Israelites,
they went around Jericho. I'm sure that when they went
around Jericho, they looked at those walls every day for seven
days. They looked at those walls. This is what it means. Walk around
and behold God's church. Walk around and behold even the
history of God's church. We can't even deny in history,
no man can deny in history that God has protected His church. Everyone that has gone against
God's church has been destroyed. Every one of them. But we have
more than history, friends. We have the Word of God. We have
the Word of God. Walk around. Walk around in the
Word of God. Study it. You want peace? Here it is. Take God's Word. Study. Spend time alone. Second of all, it says, number.
It says, tell the towers there. That word, tell, means to number
the towers. Now in this day, when you had
a city that needed protected, it had great big towers. And in these towers, they would
have sent men as a watch. They would set men to call out
if the enemy was coming, or that they would be able to fire down
on the enemy. So when people looked around
and they saw those big towers, what did they feel? They felt
safe. They felt joy. Oh man, I'm glad I got these
big towers. We'd be in trouble. Number the towers. Tower number
one. Christ is our tower. He is our
strong tower. Go to Judges chapter 9. Jesus Christ is our strong tower. Judges chapter 9 and verse 49. Well, let's begin our reading
in verse 50. It says, "...and then went Abimelech to Thebes,
and encamped against Thebes, and took it. But there was a
strong tower within the city, And thither fled all the men
and women, and all they of the city, and shut it up to them,
and gat them up in the top of the tower. And Abimelech came
unto the tower, and fought against it, and went hard unto the door
of the tower to burn it with fire. And a certain woman cast a piece
of a millstone upon Abimelech's head, and all to break His skull." A woman, a stone, and a head
that's crushed. Does that ring any bells? My Scripture said that Christ
was made of a woman. Made under the curse of the law
that He might redeem us from the curse. He is our strong tower. He has crushed the enemy's head. He is the victor. And we reside in Him. Tower number
two, the Scriptures. It's from the lofty heights of
Scriptures we can see the enemy's coming. I'll tell you what, if we have
not prepared our hearts, The Scripture says that we need to
shod our feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Why? So we may stand against
the foes that we face. But how in the world can you
shod your feet unless you know it? How can you shod your feet unless
you hear it? You can't. We need to see that God's tower
of Scriptures is there, and we need to set our affections, not
on the things of this world, but on Christ. Now then, the
tower is also the tower of faithful pastors. These are the men that
God sends to declare comfort and peace to God's children.
We are sent to warn men to flee to Christ, and escape from the wrath that
is to come. And I'll tell you this, if a
man does not warn men, he will be guilty of their blood. Friends, tonight I warn every
one of you to flee to Christ by faith and trust Him only. And you'll have a strong tower.
And you can number it. You can number it. Number three,
we may be able to restore the joy by marking God's protection. Look at this, mark ye well her
bulwarks, consider her palaces, that ye may tell the generation
following. The word mark here, some render
it, set your heart upon her strength. Set your heart on things above,
not on things on the earth. To be friends with this world
is to be an enemy of God. Our affection should not be here. Our affection should be there
in heaven where Christ sits. And if our affections are there, that's where we receive our strength.
We receive our strength from Him, from Him alone. I know this, the more I grit
my teeth and try to do something, the more I fail. But I'll tell you this, God never
fails. When He does it, it's done. And
when we do it in the power of Christ, it's done. It's done. It'll be done. He'll give us
the strength to do it, if we have no strength of our own. Mark also the palaces which are
the riches of God's grace to us. Mark those down. Set your
affections on the graces of God, of God's election, of God's covenant
of grace, of Jesus Christ who was sent to be the propitiation
for our sins. Set your affections on those
things. Mark those things, and that's
joy. That's joy. And lastly, tell the next generation. In the song of Solomon, you have
the bride and she's in her chamber asleep, and the bridegroom comes
and knocks on the door and says, open to me, my beloved. And she
says, I can't, I'm in the bed, my shoe's off, I'll get my feet
dirty. He puts his hand to the hole
of the door and the fragrance fills the room. She smells him
and she gets up and she goes to the door. He's gone. She begins to go into the streets
asking the daughters of Jerusalem, where's my beloved? Have you
seen my beloved? And they said, what is your beloved
above another? And she said, oh, my beloved
is ruddy and white. Oh, he's perfect in every way. She begins to tell. These daughters
of Jerusalem about Her Beloved. And you know what happens? She
remembers where He is. He's in His garden, where He
always was. How many times do we just forget
where He always says He would be? where two or three are gathered
together, there am I in your midst." People forget where He is. We
forget where He is. We go searching out here, searching
out there, and there's nothing. Oh, but when God puts His hand
to the hole of the door of our heart and we smell His fragrance
of righteousness, we cannot help but tell others. We cannot help
but tell the next generation how wonderful He actually is. And I'll tell you, we need to
tell them how sweet judgment is to us. How sweet and how joyful is God's
judgment. It's sweet because it's already
gone. It's already passed. And God says to His people, not
guilty. I pray that God would bless this
to your hearts. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed in prayer.