Isaiah chapter 32, this evening
we'll be looking at verses 1 through 8. Isaiah chapter 32, verses
1 through 8, and the title of the message tonight, Jesus, the
King of Righteousness. Jesus, the King of Righteousness. The Scripture says in verse 1,
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 culvert from the tempest, as rivers of
water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary
land. And the eyes of them that see
shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken,
and the heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge, and
the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly. A vile person shall be no more
called liberal, nor a miser said to be bountiful, for the vile
person will speak villainy." And the heart will work iniquity
to practice hypocrisy and to utter error against the Lord,
and to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause
the drink of the thirsty to fail. The instruments of the miser
are evil. He devises wicked devices to
destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaketh
right. But the liberal devises liberal
things, and by liberal things shall he stand." Jesus, the King
of Righteousness. Now here, in the previous chapter,
the Lord promises deliverance of Israel from the Assyrian army. He promises to come and to destroy
the Assyrian army like a roaring lion. He says that in verse 4
of the previous chapter, and thus saith the Lord spoken unto
me, Like as a lion and a young lion roaring on his prey, when
the multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he
will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself from the noise
of them. So shall the Lord of hosts come
down to fight for Mount Zion and for the hill thereof. As
birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem. Defending
also, He will deliver it and passing over, He will preserve
it. He's promising the nation of
Israel is going to be surrounded by the Assyrian army. And God
says, I will come and I will defend you as a roaring lion. I will pounce on them as a lion
on its prey. He says, I'll swoop down as a
bird swiftly and deliver you. I was thinking about when he
said that, that this bird that comes and he builds a nest over
in our little plants there. And every time we look up into
that thing, you better watch out because that bird is going
to come down and swiftly, just out of nowhere. And that's what
God says He's going to do to the Assyrian army against His
people in great affliction. God tells them that they shouldn't
call for help from Egypt. God knew what they were trying
to do. The Jews in Judah, they were going to try to call the
Egyptian army to come and help them. And God says, don't call
them. They can't help you. They can't
help you. He says that in verse 3, now
the Egyptians are men and not God. They are horses of flesh
and not spirit. Don't call out. They can't help
you. They can't help you. He says,
I'm the only one that can help you. So in verse 6 he says, Turn
ye unto Him from whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted. Deeply revolted. You see, the
Jews had deeply revolted against God. They did not worship God. They did not honor God. They
turned from the only One that could help them, and they turned
to Egypt, who could not help them. But see the grace in verse 6.
God says, turn you. Turn you to Him. Turn you to
My Savior, to My King, and He will deliver you. Don't trust
in the strength of Egyptian men and horses. God says, turn to
Me and I'll help you. And there's no help besides.
That's what He's saying. He said, I am the only help for
you. There is no other help. There
is no other help. There is no other victory. There
is no defense. There is no deliverance but from
God. Now friend, is not the nation
of Israel a picture of God's people by birth and by nature? Yes. Yes, they are. Is this not a picture of us by
our carnal natural condition? In our human nature, have we
not deeply revolted against God? In whom there is only deliverance
in Him, and yet we've turned from the only Deliverer. Man
by nature turns from the only One who can help. Is that not
utter insanity? Of course it is. Man by nature makes
idols of graven images, gold and silver. He makes a God of
His own liking. Man by nature, He fashions a
God after man and beast. Have you ever seen those gods
of the Babylonians, how they're half man and half beast, and
they got wings and they got feet like a horse, and wings like
an eagle, a face like a man? That's exactly how man puts together
a God. He puts together a God of His
own making. He would rather worship the beast
of the field than to turn to God. That's how vile the natural
man really is. Man is so depraved, so wicked
inside of his own heart, that he would rather turn to a cricket
than he would to God. Flip over to Isaiah 41. Isaiah
chapter 41 and verse 22, and God here is challenging the gods
of man's making. He's challenging the gods that
men make in their own minds and imagination that think they'll
help their souls. This is what God says. He said,
let them, the gods of this world, bring forth and show us what
shall happen. He said, you bring forth your
God and your God tells us what happened. Let Him speak. Let
Him speak. And show us what shall happen
and let them show us the former things, what they be. That we
may consider them and know the latter end of them. Or declare
us the things for to come. Show the things that are to come
hereafter. That we may know you are God's.
Yea, do good or do evil. Do something. God says, do something. And notice the sarcasm, I like
this, the sarcasm of the Lord in this, that we may be dismayed. In other words, if they spoke,
God Himself would be dismayed. But they're not going to speak.
Why? They have eyes and they see not. They have hands and
they feel not. They have legs and they go not.
They are gods of men's making. And look what he says in the
end. Behold, they are all vanity. Their works are nothing. Their
molten images are wind and confusion. That is the god that men make
themselves. They take a little gold, they
take a little silver, they fashion out a man, and they say, oh,
that's my God. And that God doesn't move until
the man moves Him. That God stays right there until
the man picks Him up and moves Him. That's the same way with
the freewill works religion God of our day. That God is so defeated. That God is so waiting for man
to do something. Man has made a mess of himself
and their God can't do anything to save them. Their God is impotent. He has no power. Friends, that's
not God at all. That's a God of man's making.
A God that needs you is not a God at all. God doesn't need us. We need Him, don't we? Turn now
to Him. Turn to God. Turn away from your
idols. Turn away from your self-works
religion. Only God omnipotent reigneth. The Lord God here, who is omnipotent,
has promised a deliverer. Look at this in verse 1 of our
text. Go back to your text in chapter
32. God says to Israel, to His people,
listen, Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness. God promised to deliver Israel
and He did, didn't He? You remember the Assyrians came
in and they were laughing and mocking at our God. They came
in on the Jews and they said, your God can't help you. And
what did God do? God did exactly what He said
He'd do. He said, I'll come in like a lion, I'll come in like
a bird, and I'll take care of them. And in one night, God killed
185,000 Assyrians in one night. And He didn't use any man to
do it. Did he? No. One night God took care of all
their problems. Took care of all their enemies
in one night. Friends, even so, have God promised
salvation to spiritual Israel. Spiritual Israel. If you remember
in Romans chapter 9 and verse 6, Paul said, not all they that
are of Israel are Israel. In other words, it's not just
the Jews. That's Israel. You see, this
little nation, it was a type and a picture of God's church.
It was a type and a picture of you and me who believe in Christ. That's who it is. If you believe
in Christ, you are the spiritual Israel. And God has promised
His spiritual Israel a King that shall rule over every nation,
kindred, tribe, and people. He shall take His people from
all kinds of people. All nations of people. God will
take out His people and has given them to His King, Jesus. How
then will the King deliver him? How will this deliverance come?
It will come by a King. Behold, a King! And this King
is none other than Jesus Christ. At the time that this was written,
there was a King on the throne that the Lord is speaking about
here, King Hezekiah. If you remember, he was on the
throne at the time the Assyrians came. And when King Hezekiah
heard, He feared. He was afraid. He was afraid
of the Assyrians. And he went before the Lord,
and you remember he laid out that letter, and he laid it out
before the Lord, and this was his cry. He cried out unto the
Lord God that dwells between the cherubims. When you think
of the cherubim, what do you think about? I think about the
mercy seat. He cried to the God that sits over the mercy seat. You see, Hezekiah needed a mediator. He needed to cry through the
mercy seat. Well, friends, Christ is the
mercy seat. He is the King. And poor Hezekiah, he had a lot
of sin, didn't he? So it's not talking about Hezekiah,
this is talking about the King of Kings, the Lord Jesus Christ. And this promise, this promise
was not just to us, it was to Christ. God promised that He
would be a King. It was a promise that the Father
made the Son in eternity. He made a promise to the Son.
He said, Thou shalt be a king. He promised Jesus to be a king
from all eternity. Before there was ever a world,
before that anything was ever made, God said His Son should
be a king and His Son should have a people. We saw this a
few weeks ago, but turn over to Psalms 110. Psalm 110. Verse 1, the Lord said unto my Lord, David's
writing here, the Lord, Jehovah, said unto my Lord, sit thou at
my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. The Lord
shall send the rod of His strength out of Zion. Rule thou in the
midst of thine enemies. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power." You see, God promised him to be a king
and to give him a people. And God promised this in eternity. This was a message of great mercy
for ends to sinners. Do you not think when the Israelites
heard this that they heard, some of them heard, He's talking about
the Messiah? Some of them heard. Some of them
believed and it was a great message of mercy. They had rejected God
deeply and now God says, turn to Me. I have a King. And they
say, we turn. We see the King. The Messiah
is coming. And He's going to deliver us.
This was a message of mercy. And even so, it's a message of
mercy to sinners today. Behold, a king. A king. God has promised Christ to be
a king. But we, by nature, we are enemies
of God. The carnal mind is enmity against
God, for it is not subject to the law of God. In other words,
the carnal mind is not willing to bow to the kingship of Christ. It's not willing to bow to Him.
The carnal mind neither indeed can be. It's not able to bow
to Christ. And friends, the Scripture says
to be carnally minded is death. Hear me. If you will not bow
to Christ, it is eternal death for you. Why? Because you're carnally minded.
Because I'm carnally minded. It's spiritual death. But to be spiritually minded
is life eternal. It's life, eternal life and peace. And only by the King who was
sent of God can a sinner be delivered from his carnal mind. You can't
deliver yourself from your own carnal mind. God Himself had
to send a King so that He was able to deliver us from our carnal
mind. Only King Jesus can deliver man
from his natural mind, for He is a King that reigns in righteousness. In righteousness. Friends, God is holy. If you ever get a hold of that,
let me know. If you ever find an end to that, let me know.
I've not found an end to it. God is infinitely holy. He is of purer eyes than to behold
evil. He is holy, righteous. And this means He will by no
means clear the guilty. Anyone guilty of breaking God's
law, then God says, by no means will I clear your guilt. Not
by your works, not by your religion, not by your own righteousness. You see, death is the only thing
that God will be satisfied with. The soul that sinneth, it shall
surely die. It shall surely die. God didn't
say the body that sinneth, He said the soul that sinneth. Now
the body goes wherever the soul lives. And the soul that dies
in sin dies for all eternity. And it never stops dying. And God must have a blood sacrifice. It must be offered in the stead
of the guilty. We cannot pay for sin, but we
must have a sacrifice that is one that is holy and righteous. You see, this is why He is the
King of righteousness, because He came as the righteous Son
of God. He came as the righteous Son
of God. Jesus became a man because He's the only one who is the
spotless Lamb of God. He's the only one without spot
and without sin. And friends, He alone honored
God's law and restored that which He took not away. I believe it's
Psalm 69 that says, I restored that which I took not away. What
did He restore? He restores God's glory. You
see, man robbed God of His glory. I was talking to a man earlier
and he said this man preached a wonderful message and then
he got to the end and he started talking about man's free will.
What did he do? He took everything he built up
and he robbed God of His glory and he gave it to the people.
He gave God's glory away. He robbed it. It belonged only
to God. Salvation is of the Lord. It's
not of us. And Jesus Christ restored that
glory. I didn't restore it. He did.
He restored God's honor by glorifying and obeying the law. He said,
I came not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent
me. Which of us has done that? None of us. None of us have done
that. He alone has done that. There's
only one Savior. He alone is the King of righteousness. Why? Because He alone obtained
righteousness. He obtained it by His work. He
obeyed God. And He's the only one. He's the
only one. He restored God's honor, God's
glory, honored God's law and brought in righteousness. And friends, He did all this
even though He didn't take anything away. He didn't break God's law
and yet He restored it. He didn't sin, yet He bore our
sins in His own body on the tree. so that He might restore righteousness. He became God's bond slave. Friends, that's great. That's
a condescension I can't understand. The Son of God came down and
became a man. He united Himself with our nature
so that He might become the servant of God. Flip over to Isaiah 42. What's the first three words? Behold, my servant. Son of God who was equal with
the Father and equal with the Spirit, yet He humbled Himself
and became a servant. You remember that in the Old
Testament, how the law of the bond slave? If a man bought a
Jewish servant, he would have him for six years, and on the
seventh year, he would go free. But if his master gave him a
wife and he had children while he was a slave, you remember
that he himself could go free, but he couldn't take his wife
and children. Unless he did what? Unless he
said, I love my master, I love my wife, and I love my children,
and then he put his ear to the door post, and they bore a hole
in his ear with an awl, with a spike. They would take a spike,
and they would nail it right through his ear, and there would
be a big hole here, which said, I'm your servant forever. Jesus Christ became the servant
of God because he loved God. Do you understand that Jesus
Christ came because of the glory of God first? That's what He
did first, is He glorified God in everything He did. And because
He glorified God, He said, I love my Master first. I love God. He says, I love my wife, His
church. That's His bride, isn't it? His
church. That's the one that was given
to Him. And then His children, which are His saints, those who
believe in Christ. He became a servant for His bride
and for His children. And especially to restore God's
honor, God's glory. He willingly did this. Willingly. Voluntarily gave Himself. And He did all that which pleased
God. Everything. There's not anything
left. He pleased God in everything. Even in the death of the cross. He was obedient even unto death. Even the death of the cross. When you see the cross in your
eye of faith, what do you see? What do you see? Do you not see the justice of God?
Can you not see how holy God is that when He saw sin on His
own Son, He killed Him? What do you think He'll do to
us? If God finds one sin on us, what do you think He would do
with us if He killed His own Son? But see, the king came for this
purpose, that he might be made sin for us. And he was. He became a curse, for it is
written, Curses everyone that hangeth on a tree. And when God poured out His wrath
on Christ, He bore every bit of the wrath of God for His people. So I not only see the justice
of God, I see the mercy of God. I see the mercy of God that God
was not willing to impute my sins to me. He was willing rather
to impute them to His Son so that I might go free. So that
I might go free. It was not for His own sins,
but it was our sins, wasn't it? Scripture says He was wounded
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon Him. And by His stripes,
we're what? Healed. That's mercy. That's
mercy. And notice this. that he was
king even on the cross. He was a servant of God, but
he was still king. What did that thief say? He said,
Lord remembers me when thou comest to thy kingdom. There he was,
a thief on the cross, worthy of that death, and he looked
over to a man who was right beside him, bleeding and dying, and
what did he see? He saw a king. He saw a king. He said, I know you're coming
to your kingdom. When you die, you're going to
your kingdom. Remember me. And he said, today
thou be with me in paradise. Christ knew where he was going.
He was going to be the king that God promised him to be. And friends,
when Christ finished the work, I love this, he cried out with
a loud voice. Now I'll tell you, somebody dying
on a cross did not have a loud voice. But he did. Why? Because he was still in his strength.
And what did he cry? It is finished. And he gave up the ghost. He
died. It's done. The work's complete.
And what did God do as a result of His work? He exalted Him to
the throne of glory, whereas it says in our text, a man shall
be a hiding place from the wind. This King, He'll be a man. And
so right now, there's a man in heaven. There's a man in heaven. Jesus Christ, the righteous.
He's sitting on the throne of God. And friends, He is doing
all His pleasure. Does anybody think that anything
happens by chance? Then I ask my own heart, why
in the world do I act like it? God gave him a people. He redeemed them on the cross.
What do you think He's doing in heaven right now? What is
His purpose? What is His will? What is He
moving all things for? Is it not to call His people
from their sins? Is it not to send His Spirit
forth by the preaching of His gospel to save His people? Yes, that's what He said. He
said, all that the Father giveth Me, I should lose nothing. but raise it up again at the
last day." That sounds like a king, doesn't it? That doesn't sound
like an impotent man. That doesn't sound like a man
who can't do what he pleases. That sounds like God, and He
is God. He's the Son of God, and yet
He's the Son of Man. He is sent to save His people
from their sins, and that's what He's doing right now. He is reigning
over all things so that God might be just and the justifier of
the ungodly. Therefore, all who come to Him,
Christ said, I will in no wise cast out." What a relief. What a wonderful word of mercy. Come to Him and He won't cast
you out. That's what He said. Believe
on Christ and you shall be saved. You shall be saved. How? By a king. By a king that reigns? He reigns. He has come to give repentance
and forgiveness of sin, the Scripture said. What is repentance? People think that you repent
from one sin or another. That's not repentance. How many
people have ever repented completely of one sin? Never! Never! But I'll tell you
what happened to me when God saved me. He did change my mind
about sin. And that's what repentance is.
It's a change of mind. That's what it literally means.
A change of heart, change of mind. And that's when the Spirit
comes. He changes our minds and hearts. He gives us sight, whereas
we were blind, and now we see. Isn't that what Newton said?
He said, once I was blind, but now I see. This is the work of
the Spirit of God that the King sends. And He sends it by His
message. And we who were blind, we now
see. And look at our text. He says,
and the eyes of them that see shall not be dim. Isn't that
a promise? That's a promise, isn't it? The ears of them shall hear and
hearken." In other words, you'll hear and listen. There's a difference
between hearing and listening, isn't there? My children sometimes
hear me, but they don't listen. But God's children are promised
this, that we shall see Christ as King, and we shall hear His
voice and hearken unto Him. He said, my sheep hear my voice,
and I know them, and they do what? They follow me. If you've
heard His voice, then you do what? You follow Him. You follow
Him. We are His disciples. We once were deaf, but now we
hear His voice. Look at the next verse in verse
4. The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge, and
the tongue of the stammering shall be ready to speak plainly. Oh, how rash we were to rush
to sin, weren't we? Look how rash we were in verse
5. The vile person shall be no more called liberal. That word
liberal means noble. And the word vile means foolish.
In other words, we will no more call foolish men noble. Isn't that what we did? Didn't
we call evil good and good evil? That's what I did. Man, I ran
to sin and I thought sin was the best thing since sliced bread. I thought sin was the most wonderful
thing in all the world and I ran to it. I called it good. But God called it evil. But now
then that He's given me vision to see in my heart, He's given
me a heart of understanding, I know what sin is. Sin is evil. And you know what I call sin?
I call sin, sin. I call it evil. We call it like
we see it. Isn't that right? We should. People are so afraid. They say,
oh, don't judge. Don't judge this or judge...
Friends, we know what evil is and what's good. Is it not right
to say that this is evil? When people are committing sin,
is it not right? As long as you don't set yourself
above them to know that that was you, but by the grace of
God. Friend, we call sin what it is. It's against God. And now my
heart wants to run to Christ instead of sin. I don't want
sin anymore. It didn't do anything. It doesn't
satisfy me. Christ satisfies the soul. And because He satisfies our
soul, friends, we are now His princes. In verse 1 He says,
the princes shall rule in judgment. That means we who preach the
gospel, the church shall speak plainly. Plainly. I was concerned about the message,
and I didn't know what I was going to preach. I had been concentrating
on this text, but I had not had time to write it down. It had
been a rough day. And I told Gil and Joanne, I
said, I may get up tonight and just say, Blood! And sit down.
That would be plain, wouldn't it? You'd understand that. Blood. But friend, we speak plainly,
Christ is King. And He is the only hope for your
souls. Believe on Him. Believe on Him. And you shall
be saved. That's the plain language of
His church. And friend, Christ has not only given us all these
things, He's also given us many comforts and peace. Look at this
in verse 2. And a man... And a man... shall be as a hiding place from
the wind." Who is that man that is the hiding place from the
wrath of God? You remember Moses was put in
the cleft of the rock so that he might see the glory of God
pass by. You see, Christ is the hiding
place for sinners so that we might stand before God when we
meet Him. Christ is that man. He shall
be a culvert or a shelter from the tempest." We're just saying
that, a shelter in the time of storm. Friends, this world is not a
place of ease or comfort, is it? It's like an ocean. It's calm one minute and a storm
comes up without warning. And our little boat is tossed.
This little boat, it's so frail, it's so fragile, and it's easily
tossed in the waves of this world. But friends, Christ is a shelter
in a time of storm. When the tempest rise, and the
world around you seems to collapse, He says, I am your shelter. Flee to Him. Flee to Him. He's a shelter in the tempest
of this changing, decaying world. And friend, He says He's also
as rivers of water in a dry place. Have you ever felt your soul
shrivel up as though it were dry like a desert? Have you ever neglected God's
Word, His preaching, His study of His Word, prayer? If you've neglected these things,
your soul will shrivel up like you've been in a desert. And
what happens when you come, when God calls you back and you hear
the Word? Is it not like an ocean of refreshing? It is. It's refreshing. It's refreshing to know that
my God is King and He rules all things for my good. He overrules all things. People mean it for evil, but
you know what? God means everything for good. And He is as the rivers of water
that refresh the soul. And He is the shadow of a great
rock in a weary land. When I thought about that, I
thought of Jonah. You remember how he rejoiced
in that little tree that came up? That little tree, just for
a time, he just thought that was the best thing. And he loved
that little tree for giving him shade. And God sent that little
worm and killed the tree. And then he was mad at God again. Don't hide under the trees of
this world. They're just here for a little
while. They're just shades for a minute. But Christ is a large
mountain. And His shadow extends long. And you can hide yourself underneath
that shadow and it will never go away. You can feel safety. You can feel comfort underneath
the arms of the King. Man, we're just like scared little
sheep. You know a sheep has to have
still water because the ripple of the water scares him. He has
to be led by still waters. And friends, our shepherd knows
exactly where to lead us. And we should be content to follow
Him. Why? He's King. He's all our
righteousness. He's all our salvation. He's
all our hope. He's all our joy. He's all our
peace. Christ is all. We should just rest in Him. He's
enough. He's enough. I pray that God
blesses to your heart. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.