A Reign Of Righteousness

Isaiah’s Vision of a Righteous King

Amen. Please turn in your Bible to Isaiah 32. We're beginning Isaiah 32 this afternoon. In this passage, we continue with the theme of the folly of trusting in the nations, but now we have this alternative, a king who reigns in righteousness to trust him instead.

Of course, this points forward to our Lord Jesus Christ. So when you have Isaiah 32, please stand for the reading of God's Word. Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule in justice.

Each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land. Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed, and the ears of those who hear will give attention.

The heart of the hasty will understand and know, and the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak distinctly. The fool will no more be called noble, nor the scoundrel said to be honorable, for the fool speaks folly, and his heart is busy with iniquity to practice ungodliness, to utter error concerning the Lord, to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied, and to deprive the thirsty of drink.

As for the scoundrel, his devices are evil. He plans wicked schemes to ruin the poor with lying words, even when the plea of the needy is right. But he who is noble plans noble things, and on noble things he stands.

You may be seated. Heavenly Father, thank you for your Word once again. I pray that you would assist us as we examine the first two verses of this passage. This king who reigns in righteousness and princes who rule in justice, I pray that you would help us to understand what you have to say about your Son, what you have to say about us and this world in which you've placed us, and I ask that you would strengthen us for the week and days and even years ahead.

In Jesus' name, amen. So let me start by taking a step back and explaining to you why we are here now, the way things are. Well, it began in the Garden of Eden when man ate the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Now a lot of people have a lot of different ideas of what it means that he ate of a tree called the knowledge of good and evil. Some people think it has to do with him participating and engaging in evil and good things.

Well, man was already good, he had already experienced good, he was already capable of doing good things. So to speak of good and evil is not man's introduction to both good and evil because he was already introduced to good, both doing good and being good.

So rather what the Bible is speaking of when it says the knowledge of good and evil, if you look through Scripture and you see the times where it speaks of knowing good and evil, which it does on a number of occasions, it's speaking of judgment, it's speaking of making discerning judgments.

So what Adam did is rather than trust the Lord's judgment, he decided to take judgment into his own hands. And because of that, because we decided to take judgment into our own hands, we have been left in a world without guaranteed provision, without protection, naked and ashamed.

However, God has provided for us in Jesus Christ a king that we might have his judgments, that we might be led. And so this is why men have kings. Men have kings to make judgments for themselves because they realize that their judgment is weak.

What is needed if you have weak judgment is to have a king, a king who makes good judgment so you might be provided for, so you might be protected. And that is precisely what this whole passage is about.

In fact, it is what this book of Isaiah is about. The theme is about the holiness of God. But as you see, that holiness is found in a king, in the particular king of Jesus Christ. That foundational passage where Isaiah receives his commission in Isaiah 6, 1, how does it begin?

Before it speaks of the Lord as holy, holy, holy, etc. How is that passage introduced? In the year that King Uzziah died. King Uzziah died because he was not sufficiently holy, and the book of Isaiah speaks frequently in anticipation of this Messiah King who would come and render good judgments, who would be sufficiently holy.

You see, the whole book of Isaiah is about the need of a king to make wise judgments for us. And that is what we read of here in this passage. So let's begin here in verse 1 where it says, Behold, a king will reign in righteousness.

Now thinking about the context of this passage, Isaiah 30 spoke of the restoration of the people. Isaiah 31 speaks of how the people will be restored through repentance. And now Isaiah 32 explains why the people will repent.

It is because a king will reign in righteousness. Now in Isaiah's immediate context, this points forward to Hezekiah. The kings prior to Hezekiah, the previous several generations of kings, had been wicked, had taught the people not to trust in the Lord, but rather to trust in foreign nations.

And so Hezekiah will, rather than pointing to foreign nations, he will have the people trust in the Lord. He will make this wise judgment. And so he will reign in righteousness. He will do what is right, leading the people to do and to think what is right.

And this is what we need. We need a king to teach us to do what is right. Otherwise, we are left without protection, without provision. It speaks also of princes. Princes will rule in justice. Now when a king reigns in righteousness, all those who are under him, all his princes, also rule in righteousness.

They rule in justice, making wise judgments, doing what is right. When the people come to them for some kind of dispute, for some kind of thing that needs resolution, this matter will be resolved by wise judgment, if the princes are under a king who makes wise judgments.

And it speaks of the effect of having a wise king and princes that rule in justice. It says, each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.

Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed. The ears of those who hear will give attention. It speaks of protection and provision. Each will be a hiding place from the wind, a shelter from the storm.

Imagine a kingdom that has a wise king and a wise government. And so each individual in that government doing what is right, doing what is just, providing for the people protection by these wise judgments, by doing what is right.

You look at our own government and what percentage of the people would you say in the government are not doing what is wise, not doing what is just? I'll let you keep that estimation for yourself. But you look at even other countries where corruption is so rampant and bribery is just a necessary part of getting anything done in government.

This is a rare thing to have a king who reigns righteously and people who reign in justice. The book of Isaiah frequently talks about how those who rule steal from the poor, steal from the orphans and the widows, and oppress and oppress and oppress.

And this is just the most common way the government is run, is by wicked rulers. But this passage speaks of something much greater, speaks of one who will reign in righteousness. So the world that we live in is like a desert.

You know, just as the Israelites ran around in the wilderness needing protection, needing provision from God, so we are in this wilderness of a world needing his protection, needing his provision, needing what it says here, a stream of water in a dry place, the shade of a great rock.

Think about why it is that people don't have the things they need. It is because those who are in charge, who are responsible for ensuring that things are governed well, do not govern the world well. And so chaos erupts.

All kinds of things that people should have are taken away from them. All kinds of freedom that they should have in order to pursue the good that they ought to pursue, that freedom is taken away from them.

All kinds of evil things happen when you have evil men making judgments for the people. But if you have a king who leads in righteousness, and indeed we do in Jesus Christ, we have a wonderful society with a wonderful government.

And so while this speaks most immediately of Hezekiah, ultimately it is pointing forward to Jesus Christ. And we can see this from several things. First of all, this book of Isaiah, in so frequently anticipating a Messiah king, when it speaks here of this king who reigns in righteousness, how would it not be speaking of the exact same thing?

Yes, it speaks of Hezekiah, but how would it not be speaking of that one who's coming from the shoot of Jesse, as it did in Isaiah 11, or in Isaiah 9, when it speaks of the, to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulders?

Speaking of one coming from David who would lead the people into righteousness? These passages that we all understand it as speaking of Jesus, how is not this passage addressing the same theme, speaking of a king, in the same anticipatory matter, how is it not speaking of that same King Jesus?

It is. It is indeed speaking of Jesus. And Jesus is a wise king who is wisdom himself, who leads us righteously by His Word and by His Spirit, able to subdue His people in a way that the kings of the past were not able because of their lack of wisdom, their lack of solid judgment.

And He is a He is a kind King. He does not rule over us in order to get what He wants, as many kings do. That is not the role of a king. The role of a king is supposed to be to rule over the people so that they might prosper, not so that He might prosper.

Matthew 20, 28 says that the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. You know, Jesus did not come in order to be served, in order that we might satisfy all His needs, but rather He came to satisfy our needs, of which there are manifold, which there are many.

And this is, this is what He has accomplished through the cross, that He has been declared to be the King above all at the resurrection. And this is, among all His offices, you may know that Jesus is not only a king, but He is a prophet and priest.

Of all His offices, this is in a sense the most primary of them. It is the ultimate of those offices. It is very interesting. I was noticing recently that the original version of our confession, the 16 .9 Confession, speaks of the nature and order of Christ's offices being essential.

The modernized version of this confession that I teach through in the orientation class says that the, I forget what it says, it says something like the nature and character of these offices is essential.

It took out the word order and replaced it with character. The word order is indeed intentional, that He is prophet, then priest, then king. That order is actually important. And as you look through what people have written in the past about this topic of Christ holding all three of these offices of Israel, prophet, priest, and king, we see that that order is important, both in what is known as the ordo salutis, the way salvation happens in our own souls, as well as the historia salutis, how salvation was accomplished by Jesus.

You consider this. He came and He proclaimed good news. That's the role of a prophet. Then He offered His life as a sacrifice. He became the mediator between God and man through praying for the people, applying the sacrifice to them.

This is His role as a priest. And then, having been resurrected, He is declared to be the Son of God and reigns over His people. Lastly, He is a king. There is an order to these offices. And the same thing in your own life.

You hear the Word of God, the prophecy that men have given as Christ spoke to them by either directly or through His Spirit, inspiring them to write these words. And then He, through His Spirit, applies His sacrifice to you that you might be saved as you believe in those words that you have heard.

And then He reigns over your life, prophet, priest, and king. And so this office of being king is ultimate, it is final, it is the primary of these offices as He reigns over us. And that is why we so frequently speak of Him as being king, even more often than we speak of Him as being a prophet or a priest.

Now, in addition to that, in addition to this king, it says princes rule in justice. Now, if we are to apply this to Jesus, we must ask, what are these princes? What are these princes if this is not speaking of Old Testament Israel, if this is not speaking of Hezekiah and those who were judges underneath Him?

Rather, what is this speaking of? And first, let me take a step back and mention what I just said there, that these are judges. You know, if you look at, once again, older writings, princes and judges, these are considered, in a lot of ways, the same things.

We usually think of that in our system of government as being two entirely distinct branches, you know, the judicial and the executive. But the way people have spoken of princes in the past is as lesser judges.

You have the high judge, and if you look in Scripture, the king sits in the gate and makes judgments for people. And then you have lesser judges who might do the same over smaller regions. So you can think of these princes as ones who are rendering judgments for the people, not, yeah, this is not speaking of the way you might think of a branch that is solely executive and not also judicial.

So what is this speaking of? Well, one possible interpretation of this would be that it's speaking of the Apostles. So let me read to you what Jesus said to the Apostles. He said in Matthew 19, 28, Jesus said to them, "'Truly I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.'".

So he speaks of them judging the twelve tribes of Israel sitting on twelve thrones. So there's a sense in which the Apostles might be regarded as these princes. However, I would argue that when it speaks of the Son of Man sitting on his glorious throne and into the new world, that it's anticipating something that hasn't been fully manifested yet.

And what we see here in Isaiah 32 is it's speaking of something that is accomplished as soon as Christ is crowned king, as soon as the resurrection might occur. These princes rule in justice. Another interpretation is that this applies to all Christians.

The Bible says that we are a royal priesthood, meaning that we, in a sense, are priests and kings. First Peter 2, 9 says, "'But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.'".

So if we are a royal priesthood, there's a sense in which we have a royal status, that we are our princes and kings. And it says in 1 Corinthians 6, 2 through 3,. "'Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world?

And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more then matters pertaining to this life?'. So it talks of believers, all Christians, rendering good judgments because of the status that God has given them to judge.

However, you'll notice in that passage it says that eventually we will judge the world, eventually we will judge even angels. And you see, most of the passages that speak of Christians reigning speak of it very explicitly as being a future reality.

Let me read to you some of these other passages. Revelation 3, 21 says,. "'The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne.'".

Second Timothy 2, 12,. "'If we endure, we will also reign with him.'". Revelation 5, 10,. "'And you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.'". 1 Corinthians 4, 8,.

"'Already you have all you want. Already you have become rich. Without us you have become kings. And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you.'". So Paul, there in 1 Corinthians, is talking about the foolishness to think that we already reign in that fullest sense.

He's saying that they have gone on acting like they reign even without Paul. So you see, the reign that the Bible ascribes to believers is something that we don't fully possess yet. Rather, I believe what this is speaking of primarily is the work of God's ministers, and it's speaking of pastors.

First Timothy 5, 17 says,. "'Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.'". Speaks of elders ruling. Now what is that, what is that rule?

That rule is not like you might think of one who commands and forces people to do all his bidding. Rather, it is speaking of making wise judgments on behalf of others. God has given pastors, he has given elders, to make wise judgments, to lead people through his word.

And we also see that just in one of the words that's used for a pastor, speaks of overseers. You know that word overseer and King James, it's rendered as bishop, but in the modern English translation just says overseer.

What is an overseer? An overseer is the one who who watches over and makes wise judgments for people. And so God has given the church not just a king, but also princes, also ministers, to point people to that word that the king has given.

And this is, this is the means that he has given for the church's protection, for the church's provision. Looking at verse 2 again, it says, "'Each will be like a hiding place from the wind.'". And interestingly, what this literally says, it says, and you can see this more literal translation, it says, "'The man will be a hiding place from the wind.'".

Speaking of princes individually, it's just the man. "'Each will be a hiding place from the wind, a shelter from the storm.'". Now this is, this is very surprising if you've been following along very intently in Isaiah, because it was only seven chapters earlier.

Now I know that's a while ago, so unlikely to be remembered so immediately. But Isaiah 25, 24, he has said the following, "'For you,' speaking of the Lord, "'for you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat.

For the breath of the ruthless is like a storm against the wall.'". And what does it describe here? It describes that same thing, but of the princes. There's a sense in which ministers, even that word minister and ministry, referring to an administration of something coming from on high, what do elders and pastors do?

As under shepherds of Christ, in the place of the great shepherd, we point people to the things that the shepherd would point them to. We point them to his word. We point them to him. We offer judgments, not perfectly, but as best we can from the word of God, teaching people how they ought to think about themselves, how they ought to think about God, how they ought to think about this world that we live in.

And this is, this is a great blessing that God has given the church, to not leave the church with a king who is reigning from on high, but not individually speaking to each one audible words, but rather has given to the church ministers that they might be led individually in that more tangible way even.

It says that it will be like streams of water in a dry place. John 7, 38 says that all those who believe are filled with the waters of the Spirit. What is the job of the minister other than to point people to Christ so that they might be full of the Spirit, where they have rivers of living water flowing from them?

All these things are the job of the minister. Now, we live in a world that is pretty skeptical of authority. And in the church, a lot of people, and by in the church I mean in among those who call themselves Christians, many of them are not interested in being a part of the government of the church and heeding a pastor.

They're very skeptical of pastors. Maybe they've been a part of situations that were indeed religiously abusive. Those situations exist. I don't want to minimize them. At the same time, many people use those as an excuse to shun the gifts that God has given them, to shun the government of his church.

But this is not the kind of rulership that God has given to pastors. This is not one of of lording over them. In fact, that passage that I just read a moment ago that spoke of the Son of Man not coming to be served, but to serve, it says before that, But Jesus called them to him and said,.

So does the case for ministers, that they are ones who are to serve and not to be served. And so this gives you a framework in which you can evaluate the quality of a minister. Is he following Christ in this?

You know, it is not right to just to write off all preachers, to write off all pastors that God has placed over his church. But at the same time, you don't want to be a fool and follow anyone who calls himself pastor or anyone who is even necessarily even in that office.

But you want to ask, is he following Christ? Is he a prince who is under this king that is reigning in righteousness? Is the justice that this prince is offering, does it accord with the righteousness of the king?

So rather than writing off pastors, rather than writing off ministry as a whole, we instead need to learn how to evaluate it according to the ministry of Christ. Now, secondly, this means that not only do we have a means of critically thinking about the nature of ministry, it also means that we have a reason to be under the government of the church.

If God has given this as a gift to his people, then how foolish is the one who thinks that he can live the Christian life on his own? There are all kinds of people who think that they can live the Christian life on their own, that they don't need to be a part of any church, they don't need to be taught by any particular pastor.

Or there are many who think that apart from being in the government of the church, they can sit in the pews week after week and call the man who speaks to them, their pastor, when they have no relationship with him.

He is not actually their elder because they have not established any kind of relationship with them. I've seen that before. Maybe you have too, that someone who attends a church but has never committed themselves to the church in membership calls the pastor their pastor.

But that relationship hasn't been established. The pastor is not aware of this sheep as theirs, as this congregant as their congregant, one that they will have to give an account for on the day of judgment.

And so apart from that kind of relationship, you won't receive the kind of care, the kind of leadership that this passage is speaking to that every Christian needs. Now it is the case, first of all, that you must think critically about these things, but also that we must submit ourselves to the government of the church.

Now, of course, it is necessary to heed pastors, to listen to the things they say. That means, first of all, paying attention. Even in a message like this, it's hard to stay awake, but heeding the things that are said.

Not only heeding the things that are said in the course of a sermon, but even in the government of the church, in the administration of it, if the pastors have decided that different meetings should exist, to actually heed them in attending those meetings, to heed them by being part of the things that the church is doing.

In addition to that, moreover, people should come to their elders in order to receive judgments on some of the major decisions in their life. Now, pastors are not given as financial advisors. They are not given as those who have a deep knowledge of necessarily secular things.

So I'm not saying that, and some people have taken this to an abusive degree once again, where they decide what job a congregant should take or what house a congregant should buy. Nothing like that. Rather, when you have a large decision and you're deciding how you ought to best serve Christ, why not take those things to your elders rather than making all your largest decisions on your own?

Or something else that's very common is a lot of people get into some kind of side ministry without ever speaking to their pastors about it, right? They start a Bible study, and maybe they start some kind of online ministry or something like that, never coordinating with their pastors, thinking that maybe their pastors wouldn't be interested in this or that they know how to do this without any advice.

Well, if God has given elders for your benefit, not to lord over you, not to restrict you so that you can't do the things that God has called you to, but rather to help you in all these things, why not take these important decisions, take these things, especially the ones related to your service to Jesus Christ, and work with your elders on such things?

And then lastly, another application from this, you should support the work of ministry. This is not just financially giving, although that is a significant part of that, in order to fund the ministry of the church.

You know, how are pastors supposed to do the things they're doing if there is not sufficient supply in order that they might serve God wholeheartedly without being, as the scripture says, entangled in secular affairs?

But in addition to that, God has called for us to pray that he would send workers out into the harvest. You can be praying for more pastors to be raised up. You can be praying for the pastors that God has given you.

All these things are ways that you can support this ministry, the ways that you can support what God has given to his church. Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule in justice.

You know, once again, we live in a world that is not interested in the things of God. Those few who are interested in following this king who reigns in righteousness, many of them have no interest in following his princes.

They think that they can follow this king of righteousness while discarding his princes, while discarding the ministry of his church, not being a part of a church, not committing themselves to it. Don't be so foolish.

Recognize, rather, that God has given us much, not only in his Son, but in his Son sending out ministers. What this verse is saying is precisely what Ephesians 4 says. You know, all these things that I'm saying, they're not, they're coming from this passage, but they're coming from the rest of scripture as well.

Consider Ephesians 4. It says, Okay, so it's talking of Christ's burial, it's speaking of his resurrection, speaking of him giving a gift, essentially like a king who has gotten spoils through battle, giving them to his people.

And what are these spoils? Verse 11, So what means has God given? What means has God given the church? He has given teachers and shepherds. You know, the word for shepherd in older translations being translated as pastor.

That's what pastor means. It refers to a shepherd. God has given teachers and pastors. This is his means of building up his church to full manhood. So let me explain this to you in one more way. The gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, his death, burial, and resurrection, what that provides, it is usually, most people do not think of all the benefits.

They usually think of just one benefit. And even those who think of all the benefits, of course, none of us can fully comprehend the goodness of God in his self-giving of himself to us. But consider this, it is not just forgiveness that he has given us, but it is a future glorification.

It is not just justification where we are made right with God, but a sanctification so that we actually grow in holiness and not just on a legal accounting are counted as holy, but are actually made more holy in order to be with him.

And he has not just given us a king who rules in heaven, but he has also, through that king, given ministers to govern his church, to lead his people, to make wise judgments. And so as you think of this passage, as you contemplate these words of Isaiah, contemplate how this is a promise of the gospel, that God gives a king, and part of that good news is not just this kingdom of heaven with the king that reigns over us from above, but also what he has given us in this family of God with each other, including the government of his church, including his ministers, and that the blessings of the gospel are far beyond what you may have thought they were before, that God has given us a king who rules in justice, that righteousness, and princes who rule in justice.

Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we pray that you would give us great wisdom. We thank you for this king who rules in righteousness, who makes good judgments for us, that we would be provided for and protected, and we thank you for establishing churches with the government, with ministers.

We ask that you would send more workers out into the harvest, that you would give your ministers great wisdom, that they would teach the people what is right, that they would know good and evil, turning people away from what is evil and toward what is good.

In Jesus' name, amen.