Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 62 from the hardback hymnal. 62. Let's
all stand together. Crown Him with many crowns, the
Lamb upon His throne. Hark how the heavenly anthem
drowns all music but its own. Awake, my soul, and sing. of Him who died for thee, and
praise Him as thy matchless King through all eternity. Crown him the Lord of love, behold
his hands and side. Rich wounds yet visible above,
in beauty glorified. No angel in the sky, Can fully
bear that sight But downward bends his wandering eye At mysteries
so bright Ground Him the Lord of life, Who triumphed o'er the
grave, Who rose victorious to the strife, For those He came
to save. His glories now we sing, Who
died and rose on high, Who died eternal life to bring, And lives
that death may die. crown him the Lord of heaven,
one with the Father known, one with the Spirit through him given
from yonder glorious throne. To Thee be endless praise, For
Thou for us hast died. Be Thou, O Lord, through endless
days Adored and magnified. Please be seated. That's our hope tonight, isn't
it, that the Lord would be adored and magnified. He said, and I,
if I be lifted up, will draw all men to myself. Hebrews chapter four for our
scripture reading tonight, if you'd like to turn with me there
in your Bibles. Thank you for your prayers and
interest in the meeting up in Crossville. I feel like the Lord
met with us and had a good meeting. Safe travels for everybody and
I was very encouraged. And especially encouraged with
the services that you all had here. Caleb, thank you and Michael
both brought faithful gospel messages and that was a blessing
to my soul to be able to listen to those. Hebrews chapter 4, beginning
in verse 9, there remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. Now that word rest is Sabbath. There is a Sabbath available
for the people of God. For he that is entered into his
rest He also hath ceased from his own works as God did from
his." When we enter into God's rest, that's entering into Christ.
He's the Sabbath. And when we enter into his rest,
we cease from our works. And that just means we cease
from looking to our works as the hope of our salvation. It
doesn't mean we cease from working. Verse 11. Let us. Labor, therefore. To enter into
that rest. Oh, what a spiritual labor it
is, isn't it? There's something in every one
of us, even after the Lord teaches us the truth and shows us the
glory of Christ and enables us to rest our hope in him. There's
something in every one of us that keeps looking outside of
Christ for some comfort for some rest. Let us labor, therefore,
to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example
of unbelief. And here's the means by which
the Lord enables us to labor and enter into his rest. For
the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any
two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul
and spirit and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner. of the thoughts and intents of
the heart. God's pleased to take his word
and speak effectually to our hearts that reveals us for who
we are and reveals Christ for who he is. Neither is there any
creature, verse 13, that is not manifest in his sight. but all
things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we
have to do. Seeing then that we have a great
high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the son of
God, let us hold fast our profession. Our profession, what is our profession?
It is finished. Christ is our hope, he's our
rest, he's our life. He is our profession. Let us
hold fast our profession. For we have not a high priest
which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
with confidence unto the throne of grace. that we may obtain
mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Let's pray. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we come into thy holy presence confident that the Lord Jesus
Christ has made us accepted, that he has provided for you
all that you require from us. And Lord, we. We pray that your
Holy Spirit would enable us this hour to rest all our hopes in
Christ. Lord, we are a needy people. And our need is most manifest
by our inability. To believe you as we ought. Lord, our unbelief. Our constant
wandering are looking away from Christ for our rest. Or that's
our our sin and. Oh, how we hope that. For Christ's
sake that you would. Put it away and that you would
give us. Grace. And mercy in our time
of need. We ask it in Christ name. Amen. Number 45, 45 from the Spiral
Hymnbook, 45. Let's stand together again. How vast, how full, how free
the mercy of our God. Proclaim the blessed news around
and spread it all abroad. How full it does remove the stain
of every sin, and makes our souls as white and pure as though no
sin had been. ? O guilty sinner come ? Christ
stands to comfort thee ? Come cast thyself upon his love ?
So vast, so full, so free ? I'm glad salvation's free I'm glad
salvation's free. Salvation's free for you and
me. I'm glad salvation's free. Please be seated. That one line we just sang in
the second stanza and makes our souls as white and pure as though
no sin had been. We have no sin before God if
we're in Christ. Perfect in him. Standing in his
righteousness. We have. We have boldness to
come before the throne of grace, don't we? That's our only hope. Only hope
is to be without sin completely. Psalm 84. Lord willing, the next. Couple
of weeks I'm going to be in Psalm 84. There are several verses
in this past in this passage of God's Word that have stood
out to me and bless my heart and I want to try to speak on
them. This evening. We're going to spend most of
our time in the first verse. In the first verse, I've titled
this message, Beautiful Tabernacles. Beautiful Tabernacles. How amiable
are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts. Now the word tabernacles
is the word dwelling places and another way to interpret this
first verse would be how lovely are the dwelling places of our
God. The Lord makes it clear in in
John chapter 14, right after, if you read the end of John 13,
after Peter had said, Lord, they may all deny you, but not me.
I'm going with you, even if I have to die. And the Lord said to
Peter, Satan has asked to sift you, Peter. And before the cock
crows, you're going to deny me three times. And sure enough,
that's exactly what happens, isn't it? But then in the next
verse, John chapter 14, verse one, The Lord, after he tells
Peter that he's gonna sin and how grievously he did, the Lord
said, let not your heart be troubled. Let not your heart be troubled.
Yeah, you're gonna sin, but you know what? I go and prepare a
place for you. In my father's house, there are
many tabernacles, many dwelling places. If it were not so, I
would have called you. I'm gonna come again and receive
you unto myself that where I am there you may be also. How gentle, how merciful, how
gracious the Lord is to us in our sin to say to us, you're
gonna sin, but you know what? Where sin abounds, grace does
much more abound. Free, sovereign grace. We preach
grace and the, The works religionist would say,
you can't preach free grace. You can't, it'll lead people
to sin. Free grace does not excuse sin. It exposes sin. It exposes it. And where sin abounds, grace
does much more abound. So here's the Lord saying to
sinners, I'm going to prepare a way for you. I'm gonna prepare
a place for you so that where I am there, you may be also standing
perfect in my sight. That's what he came to do. And now David is, or the chief
musician, is considering all the tabernacles of God and saying,
oh, how beautiful are his dwelling places. Now, we know that there's
but one tabernacle. The scripture says that God became
flesh. And he dwelt among us, he tabernacled
among us. And we beheld his glory as the
glory of the only begotten of the Father. He's the one that's
full of grace and full of truth. And that Old Testament tabernacle
that the Lord gave Moses instruction to build, everything about that
tabernacle pointed to Christ. Everything about it. The covering for the tabernacle
was badger skin. It didn't stand out as a beautiful
edifice, it was just another tent in the desert. And a picture
of the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ, how men look upon him
and they don't see anything but his humanity. They said, is this
not the son of Joseph? He's just another man like us
and they were offended by the fact that he was claiming to
be God. He was declaring himself to be
God when they said, for what works do you do you want to kill
me? Not for your works but that you being a man make yourself
out to be God. And all they could see was the
badger skin. And the Lord gave that tabernacle. But for us, for the child of
God, how amiable are thy tabernacles. How beautiful it is to know that
God was made flesh. That he was made in the likeness
of sinful flesh. That he was born of a woman,
born under the law to redeem them. That he's God's perfect
man. And so one of the things that,
the fact that the Lord uses the plural to describe tabernacles,
he's talking about the one tabernacle but all the different facets
of it. All the different facets of that
tabernacle. There's only one tabernacle.
But he's saying, Lord, from the very picture of your humanity
that others were not only unimpressed with but offended by, we delight. Lord, your humanity is beautiful
to us because you're the man that I was never able to be. God required a perfect man, and
we've got the tabernacle of God dwelling among us in human flesh. The single door going into that
tabernacle, the Lord Jesus Christ said, I am the door to the sheepfold. Any man try to enter in any other
way, any other way, is a thief and a robber. We've got to pass
through this door. And how beautiful it is for us
to know that there's but one door going into that tabernacle.
We don't have to figure it out. We don't have to make choices.
We don't have to say, well, I wonder what door we should go in. I
wonder how we should approach God. There's only one way to
approach God, and that's that one door in the tabernacle on
the east. It was always on the east side
of the tabernacle, the rising of the sun. And for the child
of God, we say, oh, how beautiful it is to not have any choices. If I'm going to come into that
tabernacle, I've got to come by Christ. I don't want God to
give me any choices. I don't want there to be options.
I want to be shut up to God's way. And the Lord Jesus Christ
is that door going into the tabernacle. And we say, oh, how amiable,
how beautiful are his dwelling places. All the different aspects
of the Lord Jesus Christ are beautiful to the child of God.
Not only was he born in the likeness of sinful flesh, but he lived
among men and suffered the contradiction of sinners and was tempted, as
we just read in Hebrews chapter four, in all ways that we are. We don't know what that means.
For us, temptation is sinful. When we're tempted, we're sinning.
The Lord Jesus Christ was tried and tested and tempted with all
the things of this world that you and I are tried and tempted
with, yet without sin, without sin. I don't know what that means,
but I'm thankful that there's a man in heaven. There's a God
man, the one man who stands between me and God, who's able to take
one hand as a man. and reach down and touch me without
being defiled. He's able to take the other hand
as God and touch God without being destroyed. The one mediator,
the God man. We find him to be amiable. We find
him to be beautiful. We have no hope outside of him.
And he was born a man, he lived a man, and he died a man. He
had to be in the body of a man in order to bear our sins in
his body upon that tree and suffer the wrath of God's justice in
his flesh, in his flesh. How beautiful, how amiable are
the tabernacles of God, all the different aspects of this tabernacle. from the badger skin to the one
door, to the altar of sacrifice. When you got into the tabernacle,
the first thing that you had was the outer courtyard. And
in that outer courtyard, that's what's referred to in the New
Testament temple as the courtyard of the Gentiles. And we would
have no hope. We would have no hope of entering
into the presence of God had the Lord not provided a place
even for the Gentiles. And then inside there is the
sacrificial altar where that lamb was taken, the lamb that
was without spot and was slain and its blood was shed and the
sacrifice was made by fire of that lamb. How beautiful, how
beautiful. We don't know, we don't know
anything about being without sin. Everything we do is sinful. And the only hope that we have
to be without sin is through faith, isn't it? It's with looking
to Christ as that lamb that's without spot, without blemish. And the one who shed his blood,
how amiable are his tabernacles. What did Abraham say to Isaac
as they were going up on? Father, here's the fire and here's
the wood, where's the lamb for this burnt offering? What Abraham
said, God will provide himself a lamb. He'll provide himself
a sacrifice. And that's exactly what he did.
And Abraham saw that ram behind him, caught by its horns in a
thicket. How amiable are the tabernacles
of our God. Our Lord Jesus Christ in his
strength, in his strength suffered. What was the curse that God gave
to this world after the fall? You're gonna till the ground
with the sweat of your brow and it's gonna produce thorns and
thistles. That's how much of our lives are just thorns and
thistles. And the Lord Jesus Christ in
his strength was caught up in that. burying our sins in his
body, how amiable, how beautiful are the dwelling places of our
God, accomplished by the one who went and prepared a place
for us, accomplished by the one who said, in my father's house,
there are many dwelling places, sufficient room for all of God's
people. And not a wasted room, not a
vacant room left. After the altar of sacrifice
was the laver for washing. It was a brass bowl that had
water in it and the priest was to wash his hands. And so we
have two things in this outer courtyard. We have the lamb that
shed its blood and we have the water. What is that a picture
of? Well, the Lord said without,
what did he say to Nicodemus? Turn with me to John chapter
three. John chapter three. Verse five. And Jesus answered, verily,
verily, truly, truly, Nicodemus, I say unto thee, except a man
be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom
of God. Now the spirit of God is the
one that applies the blood of Christ to our hearts and the
miracle of the new birth. See, there's two things necessary,
there's water and there's blood. I've heard, I've heard preachers
say, well, you've got to apply the blood. How is that any different
than you got to make a decision? Or you've got to accept Jesus.
You don't apply the blood. God applies the blood. Except
a man be born of water and the spirit, the spirit of God's the
one that applies the blood of Christ to the, as you, as you
made clear Sunday, Caleb, to the, to the lentil and the, and
the, and the doorframes of our own hearts. He's the one that
does that. And so how amiable, how beautiful
are all thy dwelling places, Lord, the way that you've provided
our salvation for us by the washing of the water, the washing of
the Word, and by the Spirit of God applying the blood of the
Lamb. And then you go from the outer court of this tabernacle,
we're talking about this Old Testament tabernacle, because
that's what the psalmist is talking about. He's talking about that
Old Testament tabernacle and how much of Christ they saw in
that tabernacle. You know, I think the Old Testament
believers saw the first coming of Christ in much the same way
that you and I see the second coming of Christ. We know he's coming. We know
the Eastern sky is going to split and the Trump of God is going
to sound, the dead in Christ is going to be raised and those
of us which are alive are going to be caught up together with
him in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. You know,
when it happens, we're going to, we're going to, oh, this
is what it was all about. It's going to be so much more
than what we can possibly imagine, isn't it? Eye has not seen, nor
is ear heard, nor does it enter into the imagination of man the
things that he's prepared for us. We just, we can't even begin
to comprehend. And so it was with the Old Testament. They, they, they saw these tabernacles. They knew that it was about the
Redeemer. They believed God, but here we're able to look back
in hindsight and see the details of how these things really did.
display the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because what do
we have once we go into the holy place? Not the holies of holies,
but the holy place where the priest went in once a week and
changed out what they change out, the show bread. They took
those 12 loaves of bread and they changed them out every week.
And the Lord Jesus Christ is our bread of life. And we're
dependent upon him to come down from heaven and to feed our souls
with that manna on a daily basis. We can't live off of yesterday's
manna. Lord, give us this day, our daily bread. I was talking
to a brother recently and he was, he was just saying, you
know, I don't know when, when I was converted. I don't know
when I was converted. You know, I'm not going to look
back to an experience even yesterday and take hope in that. You know,
this brother was saying, I know the Lord's doing something for
me right now that I, you know, not, not had done for me before.
And it's just like, it's like I never was saved. And that you,
every child of God has those experiences, but there it is.
We, we, we, we live off of his daily bread. It's not for us
to look back to an experience and get assurance of our salvation
based on something that happened, however real or significant it
was. is to live on Christ daily. And
so that showbread, that's the body of Christ that we feast
on. We symbolize it at the table.
It's the perfect righteousness. That was unleavened bread, wasn't
it? And the scripture says a little bit of leaven leavens the whole
lump. And what is that? If it is of
grace, it can no longer be of works. Otherwise, grace is not
grace. It's all of God's free and sovereign
grace. Every bit of salvation is. Every
bit of it. Can't preach grace free enough,
can we? And it's God's free grace. It's God's free grace that gives
sinners hope. And if we're ever going to be
restrained in our sin, it's God's free grace that does that. And
if we're ever going to be motivated to service, it's God's free grace
that does that. It's he that works in us, causing
us to will and to do after his good pleasure. And so there's
the bread. There's the bread, the bread
that came down from heaven. The bread that the world looks
at and they say what the Israelites say. Jesus We got that figured
out. Let's go on to something bigger
and better what the Israelites say We got man in the morning
man at lunch manna for dinner. We're sick and tired of this
light bread It's just manna manna manna We want something more
And the child of God says, oh, how beautiful, how amiable, how
satisfying is this manna that came down from heaven. Lord,
feed me again with the manna and make it fresh, make it fresh. And then in that holy room was
not only a manna, but there was a candlestick. There was a candlestick. You remember the passage in Zechariah
chapter 4, where the Lord showed the prophet a candlestick, and
on each side of the candlestick were two olive trees, and the
two olive trees produced the oil that fed the lamp? And in
the book of Revelation, it makes it clear that the candlestick
itself is the church, the pillar and the ground of the truth.
The Lord Jesus Christ is walking among the candlesticks. But what
good is a candlestick without fire? What good is a candlestick
without light? No man taketh a candle and hide
it under a bushel. No, he sets it up on a stand
so that all men can see. The purpose of the candlestick
is the same purpose of the church, is to lift up the light of the
gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ, who himself is the light of the
world. And we say, how amiable. I don't have any, I don't have
access to light anywhere else. This is the condemnation. The
Lord said to Nicodemus, light has come into the world, but
men love darkness rather than light. Why? Because their deeds
were evil. They would not come to the light
lest their deeds should be reproved. That's what the light does. And
God's people rejoice in having their deeds reproved. We rejoice
in having that sword of the Spirit expose the thoughts and the intents
of our hearts. Because that's what causes us
to turn loose of our righteousness. That's what causes us to turn
from any hope outside of Christ. What did the Lord say to Isaiah?
He said, tell them the grass. That'll be a comfort to them.
Then they won't be looking to themselves for any hope of their
salvation. They'll be forced to look to
Christ alone for everything. Everything. So the candlestick
in and of itself is of no value without the light. Those churches in Asia Minor
in the first three chapters of Revelation, when the Lord rebuked
them, he said, repent. You've left your first love.
You've lost sight of the gospel. You've lost sight of Christ.
You're majoring on a minor. And repent, lest I take your
candlestick away. That light. That candlestick
is fed by the oil of the gospel coming from those two olive trees,
isn't it? I share this illustration. Zechariah
chapter four, the two olive trees are the spirit and the word. Those are the things that God
uses to produce the oil, to feed the light. Remember when Ezekiel
preached to the dry bones and the Lord said, son of man, can
these bones live? And Ezekiel said, Lord, if they're
going to live, you're going to have to do it. Lord, thou knowest.
I can't see how they're going to live. They're very dry. It
bleached dry bones. How are these bones going to
become men? And what the Lord said, prophesy, preach to them,
preach the word of God to them. And they began to come together,
but there was yet no life in them. And so the Lord told the
prophet, he said, now prophesy to the wind, call upon the spirit
of God to come. And the spirit of God gave them.
Those are the, you see, you remember when the, in Acts chapter seven,
when the Lord, when the church, the members of the church had
contention about the distribution of the food. And the reason for
that was because they made the big mistake of becoming a bunch
of communists is what they did. The very first thing the church
did was they brought all their stuff together and put it in
common. They thought they're going to live as a commune because the Lord
was coming back next week. And that didn't last too long.
It caused dissension in the church. And the apostles said, now, you
know, we've got to appoint some men to handle this table waiting
because God has called us to do what? Prayer and preparation
of the word. That's the spirit and the word.
And in Zechariah chapter 4, those two olive trees, there's pipes
coming out of those olive trees. And they're feeding this bowl
that's holding the oil at the top of the light. How amiable. I gave this illustration, this
is what I was gonna tell you, I gave this illustration right before we
left to go to Crossville last week. Our home's on a well. And our home's like yours, it's
built on a concrete slab. And I noticed that we didn't
have water pressure like we're supposed to. And then I noticed
the sound of the well clicking. So, of course, I go around the
whole house, make sure all the hose bibs are turned off, make
sure all the faucets are turned off, no toilets running. There's
no water running. And I thought, oh, no. We've got a pipe underneath the
slab of this house that's leaking water. And I never think about
those pipes except when they don't work. As long as the pipe
gets the water from the well to the faucet, the pipes are
out of sight, out of mind. I never think about the pipes
in our house. You ever think about your pipes?
No. As long as they're working. Now those pipes in Zechariah
chapter 4 that go from the olive tree, that's the gospel preacher.
That's the preaching of the gospel. But they're just empty pipes.
And as long as they're getting the oil from the word and the
spirit into the light, You know, out of sight, out of mind. The
pipes don't get the glory. They're just somebody. Scott, you said, I mentioned
to you tonight before the service, wasn't Caleb a blessing to you?
And you said, yeah, Lord bless me. Caleb was the conduit. That's
what you said, isn't it? That's all preachers are. They're
just conduits. The blessing comes from God.
And, um, And so here's how amiable are thy tabernacles, Lord. The
light that you've provided from your word and by your spirit
through the preaching of your gospel causes that light to light
up the room. And there it is in the holy place,
the candle with the light. representing the light of the
world, the Lord Jesus. Where are we gonna get light?
How are we gonna have any light about who God is? How are we
gonna have any light about who we are? How are we gonna have
any light about how God is pleased to save sinners and put away
our sin and give us the righteousness of Christ apart from the preaching
of the gospel, apart from the word of God and the spirit of
God? Not gonna find it anywhere else,
are we? The world hasn't got no light. It's a dark world. They don't have a clue. They're
a bunch of blind men walking around. And religion doesn't
have any light. And then there's the altar of
incense. How amiable are thy tabernacles,
O Lord. How beautiful are thy dwelling
places. In that holy place is an altar
where the priests would go and put incense. And the incense
was prescribed by God. There was a perfect formula given
in scripture as to how the incense was to be put together and what
was to be put in the incense. And each of those things represented
something different about the Lord Jesus Christ, but the incense
itself was to put on the altar of incense and to be burned.
And what happened when that incense was burned? What happened? The smoke went up. And the Lord
said that the prayers of the saints are a sweet smelling savor
to me. but not only the prayers of the
saints, but most importantly, because our prayers, every prayer
we pray are precious to God. Why? Why? Because we pray them as awkward
and as, well, how many things we could say about our insufficient
prayers, but we conclude our prayers with, in Jesus' name. He's the one that, Peter, I've
prayed for you. Father, I pray for them. I pray
not for the world. I pray for them, which thou has
given me out of the world. We have an intercessor, Jesus
Christ, the righteous one, who's seated at the right hand of the
majesty on high, who makes intercession for us. There's the prayers that
are pleasing to God. And we just, we join our voice
with the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we say, for Christ's
sake, Lord, be merciful to me. And whatever prayers we fumble
up to God, they are joined to that prayer of the Lord Jesus
Christ and raise up just like that pillar of smoke went straight
up. There's the altar of incense. Everything about this tabernacle
is beautiful. How would we dare come into the
presence of God if we didn't have an advocate? If we didn't
have Christ interceding for us, if we didn't have the hope and
comfort and assurance of his prayers, would we be able to
have any assurance of salvation based on our prayers? The sincerity
of them, the frequency of them, the honesty of them, the truth
of them? No, no. That's why the Lord tells
us in the book of Corinthians that when we pray, our prayers
are there. Well, the Holy Spirit has to
pray for us, doesn't he? He, he's, you know, we, we just,
um, our, our, our prayers are groanings as scripture says,
groanings. Then how amiable are thy tabernacles? There's one tabernacle, but there's
many facets to it. And everything in that tabernacle
points to Christ. How beautiful it is to know that
between the holy place and the holies of holies place, there's
a veil. There's a veil. And that veil
clearly, in Hebrews chapter four, is the body of the Lord Jesus
Christ, which was rent on Calvary's cross when the wrath of God's
justice fell from heaven on him. When he cried, my God, my God,
why'st thou forsaken me? And God, it pleased the Lord
to bruise him. God put his son to death. He
saw our sin on Christ. Christ owned our sin as his own. And God's justice required the
death penalty. And his flesh was rent. And the very moment he bowed
his head on Calvary's cross and cried, it is finished, the veil
in this temple, this tabernacle, was rent from top to bottom.
Gosh, that's significant, isn't it? The scripture says rent from
bottom to top, well maybe a man got a hold of it and tore it.
No, God rent it. God rent it. And when he rent
that temple, when he rent that rail, that veil, he said, come
in, come in. See what's in there? For 1500
years, that high priest went in there on the day of atonement,
scared to death that God might kill him when he went in there.
That place was so holy. Putting that blood on that mercy
seat where God said, here, I will meet with you. Now perfect love
casteth out fear. There's no reason for us to be
afraid to come into the, that's why we come before the bowl,
the, the, the, the throne of grace with boldness, confident,
confident that the blood of Christ was put on that mercy seat that
day, 2000 years ago. And the veil has been rent. And
God has said to us that arc which represents the deity and the
humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ and that mercy seat, which is
where the blood was placed in order that we might know the
mercy of God. What was in the ark? The tablets
of stone, the law, Aaron's rod that had budded, and an ofar
of manna. And that manna is a picture of
Christ being our prophet. He's the bread of life that has
come down. The rod is a picture of Christ
being our high priest who has entered into the holies of holies.
And the law is a picture of Christ being our king who gave the law
and then fulfilled the law. Prophet, priest, and king. And
the Lord says, come here, come. The spirit of the bride said,
come. Come, it's all done. When that man gave a wedding
feast for his son, what did he say? What did he say? Go out
on the highways and hedges and compel them to come in, for everything
has been prepared. You invite someone to your home
and they want to bring something. And sometimes we let each other
bring things, and sometimes we say, nope, it's all done. Just
come just like you are, empty handed. Don't bring anything. It's all done. Table set. Blood's been shed. God satisfied. We come just like we are without
one plea. But that Christ died for me,
that's my only hope. My only hope. How amiable are
thy tabernacles? How beautiful. are all thy dwelling
places. Lord, everything about you is
beautiful. To a sinner, to a sinner, everything about him is beautiful
to a sinner. Verse two. My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth
for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh crieth
out for the living God. Now we've seen over and over
again how these Psalms apply first and foremost to the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's the only one that could
say my heart and my flesh. He wasn't, he didn't have, he
wasn't made in sin. The scripture says he had the
likeness of sinful flesh. You looked at him and saw a man
and he looked like just every other man. But he was without
sin. He's the only one that could
say, I long after God with all my heart and all of my soul,
all of my time, with all my flesh. His flesh was holy. It's perfect. And he. Longs for the courts. Faints
for the presence of his father. Dives. In order to satisfy his
father's justice. Oh, how we long. For the resting
places. All the precious resting places.
They're beautiful to us. And the doctrines that God has
given us in his word are beautiful to us. They're amiable. and they
remind us of what God has done in providing rest for his people
so that we can cease from our works as he ceased from his. He ceased from his works in creation. Why? Why did God stop working
on the seventh day? One simple reason, he was finished. Everything he intended to create
was created. His work was finished, and so
he rested the seventh day. And as God rested from his work,
so we are to rest from our work. And all the precious doctrines
that we love so much are amiable in our sight because it reminds
us of our rest. And these doctrines are hated
by man. The doctrine of election, predestination,
that God chose in the covenant of grace a people apart from
any consideration of their worthiness or their unworthiness, but for
the pure reason of his own will and purpose and pleasure. That
was the only purpose that God chose. And God's people say, I'm glad
for that. I'm glad God didn't look for
me. Look to me for anything. Lord, I know I did not choose
you. Or had you not chosen me, I never would have chosen you.
Never would have done it. How beautiful is. The doctrine of election, knowing
that we have a God who has elected a people. How beautiful is the
doctrine of total depravity. They're amiable in our sights,
aren't they? All these truths that God's given
us from his word. Behold, I am vile. And in me,
that is in my flesh, there is no good thing. Woe is me, I'm
undone, I'm a man of unclean lips. Lord, I am grass and I'm
glad to know that. Glad to know that. This is beautiful
to me. I said earlier, you can't preach
grace free enough. You can't preach sinners sinful
enough, can you? Not to a sinner. Can't preach
sinners low enough and can't preach Christ high enough. And
that's the, that's the glory of the gospel. Lord, this is
beautiful to me. It's beautiful to know that the
Lord Jesus Christ actually accomplished the salvation of God's elect.
He didn't make an offer of salvation to us. He went before the father
and put his own blood on that mercy seat. The scripture says
a mercy seat in heaven, not made with hands, And there God saw
his blood and God said, I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied. And that's beautiful
to us. That the salvation of God's elect
was actually accomplished. That the atonement was particular
and that it was limited to God's elect. That's beautiful to us. Without that, there's no grace.
Without that, you've got to add work somewhere in the equation,
don't you? You gotta add works to it somewhere. How beautiful are thy dwelling
places? Lord, how beautiful it is to
know that Christ longed after you with all of his heart. How
beautiful it is to know that my calling is a work of sovereign
grace. Lord, that God would make me
willing in the day of His power, that the Spirit of God would
apply the blood of Christ to my heart and call me out of darkness
into His marvelous light, that He would open the eyes of my
understanding and reveal the glory of Christ to me, that He
would take out the heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh and
unstop my ears so that I could hear. How beautiful it is to
know that God did all that. I didn't have anything to do
with it. How beautiful it is to know that
my sanctification, my holiness before God has nothing to do
with me. Has nothing to do with me. He
that sanctifyeth, that's the Lord Jesus Christ, and they which
are sanctified are all as one. That the Lord Jesus Christ imputes
his righteousness to us so that we are perfect before God, sanctified,
holy, holy, W-H-O-L-L-Y, holy, sanctified, completely sanctified
before God. And how amiable and beautiful
it is to know that he's going to keep me from falling and present
me before his throne with great joy and that my glorification. my translation into the presence
of God. This mortal being made immortal
and this corruptible being made incorruptible, it's all a work
of grace. It's all of God. How amiable it is to know that
I don't have to leave this world wondering if I've done enough. How thankful I am. How beautiful
does he make his resting places? All in Christ, that one tabernacle
of God. God's people. Can cease from
their labors and rest in Christ? Let's pray. Our merciful Heavenly
Father. Thank you. For making the tabernacle
of Christ and all of his facets and all of his glory beautiful
in our sights. Lord, there was a time when we.
Had no interest. These. These things would have
not been of any beauty to us at all. Lord, it pleased you
who separated free us from our mother's womb to call us by your
grace. Give us your spirit. And reveal
to us the glory of thy son. Lord, make Christ. More beautiful
to us. We ask it in his name. Amen. 452 number 452. Let's stand together
for 52. Thank you. I stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus the Nazarene, and wonder how he could love me, a sinner
condemned unclean. How marvelous, how wonderful,
and my song shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful
is my Savior's love to me. For me it was in the garden,
He prayed not my will but thine. He had no tears for his own. Griefs but shed drops of blood
for mine. How marvelous! How wonderful! And my song shall ever be. How marvelous! ? How wonderful is my Savior's
love for me ? In pity angels beheld him ? And came from the
world of light ? To comfort him in the sorrows ? He bore for
my soul that night ? How marvelous, how wonderful ? And my song shall
ever be ? How marvelous, how wonderful ? Is my Savior's love
for me ? He took my sins and my sorrows ? He made them his
very own He bore the burden to Calvary And suffered and died
alone How marvelous, how wonderful And my soul shall ever be How
marvelous, how wonderful Is my Savior's love for me When with
the ransomed in glory His face I at last shall see, ? Twill
be my joy through the ages ? To sing of His love for me ? How
marvelous, how wonderful ? And my song shall ever be ? How marvelous,
how wonderful ? Is my Savior's love for me you