going to be in Isaiah chapter
32 to start with this morning. This is a place that I've enjoyed the reading
of through it and several times recently we've touched on part
of this or I've seen part of this in different messages. And I'd like to read, let's see, Starting with verse 1, we'll
read down a ways. In chapter 32 of Isaiah, it 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 the shadow of a great rock in a weary
land. And a couple of commentators
that apparently, and I don't have the version of it, but in
some of the old Bibles, some of the different translations,
it says, behold, the king shall reign in righteousness. And down here in verse two, and
it says, and that man shall be as in hiding place. And I, and
I, I think we'll see that that probably is a good rendering
of it in a different than we have in the King James, it says,
A King. And then verse 17, it's the same chapter,
it says, and the work of righteousness shall be peace and the effect
of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever. And we'll
see how that connects in this weekend, hopefully next week
too, as we look at some things. The king shall reign in righteousness
and princes shall rule in judgment. The king speaks of here, obviously,
is the Holy One of Israel, as it says earlier in the chapter.
Isaiah, in several different places, sees the Lord. and sees who he is. And as one
passage says, I saw the Lord high and lifted up. And, and
we'll, we'll look at that, uh, spot a little later, but I'd
like to look at several passages that just speak to this, um,
to the King and who the King is. And, and I know it's very
obvious, but I think some of these, these passages will, uh,
be good for us to see in Psalm two, Psalm 2, a wonderful psalm. The whole psalm is a wonderful
psalm. I'd like to read it in its entirety.
It's only 12 verses. Psalm 2, it says, Why do the
heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the
earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together
against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, Let us
break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, and the Lord shall
have them in derision. Then, verse 5, then shall he
speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sordid pleasure.
Yet I have set my, verse 6, I have set my king upon my holy hill
of Zion. I will declare the decree the
Lord hath said unto me. Thou art my son, this day have
I begotten thee. Ask of me and I shall give thee
the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the
earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a
rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's
vessel. Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings. Be instructed, ye
judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and
rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry,
and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all they that put their trust in him. And up here
in verse six it says, Yet I set my king upon my holy hill of
Zion. And we'll see that that's the
Lord Jesus Christ himself that is the king of kings, as we'll
see. And a lot of times in olden times,
in the times that these were recorded and written of and our
times, the king it speaks about or a king that's They want to
confuse that with the physical here and now and what it speaks
about and ignore the spiritual. It does speak about things that
physically things that our Lord as that King does. But the greater
things I would put out and we'll see are the spiritual things
that he does in the ruling head. He indeed rules physically, has
always and always will. But that's not the thrust of
the pictures we'll see that speak of him. We'll look and see where
the Jews, a lot of them, all they could see was in the physical
sense. They couldn't deny that he was a great physical king.
All the miracles and different things that we have seen him
do in the Old Testament, in the book of Exodus, all those things
that were done, they had to admit that that they believed in God. They may not have believed in
it in their spirit, may have not been made live in them, but
they couldn't deny the things that were taking place. It didn't
make them believers. It didn't make them have life
in their in their heart, a change of heart, they were still going
the same way just as Pharaoh. His heart was hardened by it.
You see those things and you think it'd be pretty hard to
be hardened against what you can see being done, but that's
what the scripture says. And just mere physical blessings
or hardship or miracles doesn't change a man's heart. The spirit
has to do that. The heart is so contrary to to
righteousness and holiness that it takes the work of God to change
that. We can see some real miracles,
and like I say, you'd think some of those things that they saw
in the Old Testament, particularly those things, you'd think that
would kind of change a person, but we haven't much proof that
that is not what changes men. It's the power of God and the
Spirit of God that does that. But here in verse 6, God speaking
says, Yet I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. So he indeed
is that one. In verse 7, where it says, I
will declare the decree the Lord said unto me, thou art my son,
this day have I begotten thee. And we'll see the importance
of that too on that, that, that, uh, uh, speaking of the Lord
himself. In, in first Timothy, and we're
going to be going back and forth a bit here. Um, but in first
Timothy, Chapter 6, 1 Timothy chapter
6, starting with verse 13. Paul's talking to Timothy and
some charges that gives him as, as what? men in the church should be like,
and people of God would be like, and some admonitions and some
teachings in what we are like and what we should be like. But
it starts in verse 13. It says, I give thee charge in
the sight of God who quickeneth all things, and before Christ
Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession,
that thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable until
the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which in his times he
shall show, who is the blessed and only potentate, the King
of kings and the Lord of lords, who only hath immortality dwelling
in the light which no man can approach into, whom no man hath
seen or can see, to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen. And, um, Speaking of the Lord
Jesus Christ, it says, who shall show who is the blessed and only
potentate, King of kings and Lord of lords. The thought and
the meaning of those words is one who is absolute top. There's
no There's not subservient to anyone or anything. He is indeed
the king of all kings with little k's and the Lord with big L of
lords with little l's. There's none that are on an equal
plane with our Lord and potentate the all-powerful, all-powerful
one and not sharing that with another. These are things that are revealed
to his people and that we can read the words of them
and you can tell people the words of them and they say, yeah, I
believe in God and I believe those things. But like Isaiah
said, until he shows himself to his people, we have such a
small picture of what that means to be a king. And to be a potentate,
we think of that in our society, and it kind of rankles us. We're
not going to have no king over us or potentate. We don't go
for that thing. But when the Lord himself reveals
himself to his people, we understand what that means. And it's a blessed
thing to have that one that is the all-powerful, almighty God
that is our king. In the book of Revelation, Revelation chapter 19, and indeed
the book, The Revelation of Jesus Christ. It shows a lot of pictures
of who He is and the greatness of that. Again, without Him revealing
the truth of those things to us, it's hard to comprehend some
of these things. starting with verse 10, and not
just to, I know we're picking in the middle of this, but it's
all in this, these chapters and others showing the, the, the
greatness and whose salvation is, is to his people. And verse
10, it says, and I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said,
speaking of the angel speaking, he's saying, see thou not do
it. I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren, that have
testimony of Jesus. Worship God, for the testimony
of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. And I saw heaven open, and behold,
a white horse, and he that sat upon him was called Faithful
and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire,
and on his head were many crowns, and he had a name written that
no man knew but he himself. And he was clothed with vesture
dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. And
the armies which were in heaven followed him upon the white horses,
clothed in fine linen and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a
sharp sword that with it should smite the nations, and he shall
rule them with a rod of iron. And he treadeth the winepress
of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God. And he hath
on his vesture, and on his thigh, a name written, King of Kings,
and Lord of Lords. We're going to be back to the
book of Revelation a little farther on. But King of Kings and Lord
of Lords, one of his titles and positions. who he is and before this it
speaks about the lamb and he is the lamb slain as we've heard
before, before the foundation of the world. He was not in time
made into this position but he was that to his people before
the foundation of the world itself. It speaks about the the king
and talks about, as we saw, the one that's going to be a shelter,
a covert from the storm in Zechariah. Back to the book of Zechariah. If I go to the right place, I'll find
it. I can't find you right now. Can't find it in a second here.
I'm going to tell you what it says. I can't find that spot right
off for some reason. But it's in Zechariah 13, 7 it speaks
about the Lord and that King being God's fellow, God's man
in that place. God was put in that position
as the King. It wasn't a vote, it wasn't a inherited spot. It was who he
was, God's fellow, God's son, God put him in that spot. It goes along with that. Jeremiah
chapter 23, It speaks in the beginning of
chapter three of Jeremiah, it speaks under the pastors that
use that word pastors that are shepherds, over shepherds, that
scatter the sheep, that destroy the sheep, that don't preach
and teach the right thing according to what the Lord has taught and
shown them that feed the people. The wrong stuff, it says, verse
3 of chapter 23 of Jeremiah, it says, and I will gather the
remnant of the flock out of all countries, whether I have driven
them, and I will bring them again to their folds, and they shall
be fruitful and increase. And I will set up shepherds over
them, which shall feed them, and they shall fear no more,
nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the Lord.
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto
David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and prosper,
and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his
days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely. And
this is his name, whereby he shall be called the Lord our
righteousness." that branch, several terms used
for the Lord himself here, a righteous branch, and a king shall reign
and prosper. And then down here he shall be
called, his name whereby he shall be called is the Lord our righteousness. And that was one of the banners
that they marched under and had over them, that the Lord our
righteousness. And indeed that without God's working in those men or
any men, whether they be pastors, as it says, or whoever they be,
without the working of Him in them, they can't acknowledge
or recognize not only that He is the Lord our righteousness,
but the need for that even. They don't see the need, but
here He is the one that was promised to Adam and Eve, the one that
was going to come, that was going to deal with the problem, that
was going to take care of the sin, that was going to be the
one that brought righteousness in. Indeed, he is the one that
is spoken of here. In Psalm number 45, And a lot of the psalm deals
with the Lord as the king and the mighty one and the ruler
over all and the one that sustains and creates and builds and sets
up the book of psalms is many of those songs that were written
in this form. Psalm 45, starting with the with the first
verse of Psalm 45. It says, My heart is indicting
a good matter. I speak of the things which I
have made, touching the king. My tongue is the pen of a ready
writer. Thou art fairer than the children
of men. Grace is poured into thy lips.
Therefore God hath blessed thee forever. Gird thy sword upon
thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty. And
in thy majesty ride prosperously, because of truth and meekness
and righteousness. And thy right hand shall teach
thee terrible things. Thine arrows are sharp in the
heart of the king's enemies, whereby the people fall under
thee. Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever. The scepter of
thy kingdom is a right scepter. Thou lovest righteousness and
hatest wickedness. Therefore, God, thy God, hath
anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. And
we'll stop there. But here's speaking about the
most mighty, the one, the king, the righteous one, Those things it speaks about,
and then it says, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. They're
synonymous, one in the same. Our God is the king on the throne. It's not speaking of any other.
And yet we'll see, in just a bit, we'll see that even down to when
Christ was walking, and even to our day, the king they were
looking for was not the king that was there. not in stature
or appearance or any of that type of thing. We're going to
visit our friends on the road to Emmaus just for a little bit
there and what they had thought that this king was. The Lord
himself talked with them and taught them a few things and
their eyes were opened. They had a different view of
a lot of things then. In Hebrews chapter 1, in the
book of Hebrews, keeping in mind that this wonderful book of Hebrews
shows and interprets a lot of the Old
Testament for us of what it has to say and why it has to say
that. It's speaking of how Christ It
was spoken, speaking of Christ, and all the things that they
did, the sacrifices, the priesthood, all those things, and how he
is much better than the picture. And go back to what Norm had
used to say some time back, that go into Denny's and look at the
menu, and he always liked their menu because it was such a beautiful
menu, but it was just a menu. It wasn't the food on the plate.
They didn't put that menu down there and expect you to enjoy
it. other than making your choice as far as the food goes. It's
the same picture. The pictures in the Old Testament
of all the things that they had and saw and were to do and to
recognize and sacrifices, those were just as the menu. They were
an image. and a poor image of the real
one. The book of Hebrews is pointing
that out of how we don't want the pictures. That doesn't get
the job done. We want the real thing. We want
the king himself, the one who indeed is the savior of his people. In Hebrews chapter 1, I'd like
to read the first eight verses of it. It says, God, who at sundry
times and in diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers
by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his
Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom he also
made the worlds, who, being the brightness of his glory, and
the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the
word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat
down on the right hand of the majesty on high, being made so
much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained
a more excellent name than they. For under which of the angels
said he at any time, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten
thee. And again I will be to him a
father, and he shall be to me a son. And again when he bringeth
in the first begotten into the world, he saith, and let all
the angels of God worship him. And the angels, he saith, who
maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.
But unto the sun, he saith, thy throne, O God, is forever and
ever. A scepter of righteousness is
the scepter of thy kingdom." And as an introduction, and as
it says here, it was by the Holy Spirit giving these words to
us in time past, it says, in many times, in different manners,
spoke in times past by the fathers and the prophets. But now, here's
the son, hear ye him. Those men Faithful men spoke
of him and with the words that were given to them, the pictures,
the descriptions, the many truths that were given to them to deliver
to God's people. They did a faithful job of that.
He had his prophets. But in these last days it said,
by his son who is heir of all things and is the one that sits
on the throne and indeed is the It says, a scepter of righteousness
is the scepter of thy kingdom. And again, showing that that's
not speaking of an earthly king. He indeed rules over all earthly
physical things of the whole universe, no matter how far they
stretch that out. He's still the one that not only
has power. He created and put it there. But especially to us in spiritual
matters and spiritual things that his power in his scepter
will never leave him. In Isaiah, back to the book of
Isaiah, In another spot, Isaiah chapter six. Isaiah chapter six. And again, starting with verse
one of this and down a bit. Chapter six of Isaiah. It says,
in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting
upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the
temple. Above it stood the seraphims,
each one had six wings. With twain he covered his face,
and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
And one cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the
Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his
glory, and the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that
cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe
is me, I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I
dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes
have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the
seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had
taken with the tongs from off the altar. And he laid it upon
my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine
iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. And also I heard
the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will
go for us? Then said I, Here am I, send
me. And he said, Go and tell this
people. And here are a couple of things
where Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up and saw him on
his throne and saw that those that said, holy, holy, holy is
the Lord of hosts. And again, he said, mine eyes
have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. And this may not have
been the first time he saw him, but in the year when King Uzziah
died, he saw him high and lifted up. And it wasn't just, now I
get it. It was the Lord had, God's Spirit
had revealed to him who he was. who he was thinking of, who he
saw in that vision, who this person was. It wasn't just the
next good ruler that we might have, but this is the Lord God
himself. And I have an idea that that
put a different perspective on Isaiah's bringing the word from
the Lord to his people. In Psalm 18, Psalm 18, and we're gonna be
in this, some of this thought next week, because I'm not gonna
be able to fit it all in today. But in Psalm 18, First couple of verses it says,
I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock,
and my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my strength, in whom
I will trust, my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and
my high tower. Speaking of the king that we
saw in Isaiah and that man, that king, that same one, our Lord
and Savior, The God Almighty is also shall be as a hiding
place, it says, and a covert from the storm. And in that,
in verse two there, and we're going to start with this, look
at a few verses that show that, that this is the one that's being,
that's being talked of here. The Lord's my rock and fortress
deliver my God, my strength. and the horn of my salvation
and my high tower. And we'll see that there were
those that viewed God as a strength and as a power to deliver them
from problems they had and from people around them. But there
are those that saw him as much more than that, much more than
the the king that was solving the problem at the battle we
had today, but was, as it says here, the horn of my salvation. I think many of those saw him,
the salvation with the big S version, not the small S version, and
that he indeed was salvation to his people and not just from
hunger and thirst and those type of things, but from the spiritual
salvation, the spiritual pit that we find ourselves in. In
Psalm 46, there were many times that David
prayed to God in problem times and things that he was in some
bad straits physically and that he prayed to God about that. There were many times when they
were both in his spiritual issues were greater. It says
in Psalm 46, starting with the first verse, it said, God is
our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore
will not we fear, though the earth be removed and though the
mountains be carried into the midst of the seas, though the
waters thereof roar and be troubled. So the mountain shake with the
swelling thereof, Selah. Verse seven, it says, and we're
going to be back to this psalm next week again. The Lord of
hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge,
Selah. And we'll see that not just physical
problems, physical floods, but spiritual floods and spiritual
issues. First Corinthians in chapter
10. And we're just going to kind
of hit on where we're going to be heading with this later at
another time. But First Corinthians chapter
10. It says, starting with the first
verse. Moreover, brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant
make sure I'm in the right, that all our fathers were under the
cloud and all passed through the sea, and were all baptized
unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and did all eat the
same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual
drink. For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed
them, and that rock was Christ. Pretty plain, that rock was Christ. It wasn't It wasn't just a symbol
of that. And yet to some it was probably
was, but there were those that said, drank the same spiritual
drink. They drank of that spiritual
rock that followed them. And that rock was Christ. A couple
of things that points out, not only does it say who that is,
but it says that spiritual rock with a big R. not just our fortress
in that we can hide from the Philistines type of fortress,
but that true spiritual rock, spiritual fortress, spiritual
hiding place that it talks about. And then in Revelation chapter
seven, Revelation chapter seven, And verse 9, chapter 7, Revelation
verse 9, and this is talking yet about servants of God and
those different things they saw in his visions. And of different tribes, it talks
about a picture of how many from each tribe is a picture of the
multitude of God's people. It says, Revelation 7, 9, it
says, After this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which
no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and
tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lord, clothed
with white robes, and palms in her hands, and cried with a loud
voice, saying, Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne,
and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round
about the throne, and about the elders, and the four beasts,
and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God. But here, salvation to our God,
which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. We're going
to see where several terms speaking about the king, our rock, covert
from the storm, as it says, and we are going to see that. The
Lamb is to His people. In Salvation it is written and
it will speak about the Lamb from the foundation of the world. I don't want to go into Mike's
time this morning. That is kind of an introduction
to where we are going to go. We are going to see that the king and the rock are the
only ones and the only way that God's people are justified before
God. And that as Christ showed them that all this speaking about
the King and the mighty one, the one lifted up, that it talks
about that Christ is the spirit of prophecy. All those things
being about is speaking about him. There may be some other
details included in that, but the point and the thrust of prophecy
is the Lord Himself. This is just touching on it with
the King of Kings and the potentate and the High and Mighty One and
particularly the Lord our Righteousness and the standing we have in Him.
We are going to pick up some of these thoughts next week. Typical to say this time of the
morning, be free.