Now, brethren, Psalm 134 is the
last of the Ascension Psalms. These songs were sung as they
went up to Jerusalem and went to the Lord's house to worship.
Now, in this psalm, they've come to the Lord's house and worshipped
Him. And He gives us two aspects here
of true worship. two aspects of true worship. It declares two of the highest
privileges God has given us, or that could be given. People coming into this world
looking for great things in this world and trying to reach some
lofty goal in this world. This is the highest privilege
anybody in the world could be given. These two things we're
about to look at tonight. The highest privilege. Number
one, through the Lord Jesus, God gives his people boldness,
liberty, access, welcome to come before him and bow down and worship
Him to give Him all the honor and all the glory and all the
praise, to worship Him. That's a gift of God's blessing
to us. He tells us in verse 1, Behold,
bless you the Lord. Worship Him, praise Him, everything
Brother Greg just read in Psalm 100. That's what we're talking
about here. Bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord,
which by night stand in the house of the Lord. Lift up your hands
in the sanctuary and bless the Lord. That's the first aspect
of this privilege of worship is we come to give God all the
glory. The second aspect is God blesses
his people. He says, verse three, the Lord
that made heaven and earth bless thee out of Zion. Our subject
is bless ye the Lord. And we just have two points.
We're just gonna look at these two points concerning worship. True worship is to bless the
Lord God through Christ Jesus. That's our first point. True
worship is to bless the Lord God through Christ Jesus, our
mediator. And secondly, the only reason
we bless him is he's already blessed us. But as we worship
him and give him the glory and the honor, he blesses us from
his holy throne in Mount Zion. Now let's look at these two things
together. First of all, true worship is
to bless the Lord God through faith in Christ Jesus, to come
before God, giving him all the glory and honor through the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, under the old covenant,
only the priests could approach God, and they did it on behalf
of the people. They were the ones who went into
the sanctuary, and they did it on behalf of the people. But
now, because of the Lord Jesus, He's made all His people that
He sanctified, that He's regenerated, He's made us to know He has made
us kings and priests unto God. Revelation 1.5 says, Jesus Christ,
the faithful witness, the first begotten of the dead, and the
prince of the kings of the earth, unto him that loved us and washed
us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests
unto God and his Father. To him be glory and dominion
for ever and ever. Amen. So he's made us all priests,
everybody he's called, He's made us priests to God so we can come
to God without a man being a priest. But we come through Christ, our
high priest. That's what was pictured in that
high priest in the Old Covenant. Look at Hebrews 10 in verse 19. I know you know this, but I just
want you to see it. Hebrews 10, verse 19. Having therefore, brethren, boldness
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new
and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the
veil, that is to say, his flesh, and having a high priest over
the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full
assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled with medieval
conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Now we can come
without having a man to be a priest. We have the God-man as our high
priest. We can come through His blood
into God's holy presence. That's what we came here to do
tonight. Come before God and worship Him. Now, we're going
to come back to verse 1, but I want to deal with some things
here in verse 2. When God gives us true worship, When He blesses
you and gives you true worship, a heart to truly worship, we
come before God with a pure and holy heart. Verse 2 says, lift
up your hands in the sanctuary and bless the Lord. Now we don't
put on a show of lifting up our hands. Some do in congregations. We don't do that. Lifting up
the hands is to lift up a pure and holy heart to the Lord. It's
to worship Him in sincerity and in truth. It's to give God alone
all the glory. That's what truly lifting up
the hands is all about. Only God makes His child worship
Him from a new heart, a holy heart, a pure heart, by being
born again of the Spirit of God. When I pray, you hear me ask
God to give us worship, to give us, to permit us to worship and
give us the blessing to worship. Well, we can't do it until we're
born of God and given a new heart. That's the only time we can really
worship, because only then can you believe on Christ. But even
as God's saints, we can come in here, we can sing, we can
pray, we can read scripture, we can preach, we can do all
the form, and our heart be far away, and we not really worship.
We have to have God to give us true worship. And so we ask Him
to give us free worship. And when we truly worship the
Lord... When we truly lift up a holy heart, a sanctified heart,
and lift up the hands of our heart from a holy, pure heart
in sincerity and truth, it's because the Lord's already blessed
us. He's already given us a blessing to let you enter into true spiritual
worship. You know those times that are
sweet when you just really, it's like the Lord is, it is the Lord. It's Him speaking into your heart
and you know it. And we lift up our hands toward
God in this sense that we come with empty hands. We're not bringing
anything of our works to God. Nothing in my hands I bring simply
to thy cross I claim. Now, verse 2, he says lift up
your hands in the sanctuary. The sanctuary is the holy place.
There's several things that's meant by the sanctuary here.
First of all, the sanctuary is Christ. He's the holy place. Christ united with his church,
or one, the holy temple not made with hands. It's only in Christ
that God will meet with his people. Hebrews 8, 1 says, of the things
which we've spoken, this is the sum. We have such a high priest
who sat on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in
heavens, a minister of the sanctuary of the true tabernacle which
the Lord pitched in that man. Christ is the temple. He's the
holy place. and He's built us up as His holy
house in which He dwells. He's the place of revelation.
He's where God's revealed to us, is in Christ. He stood in
that temple and He said, in this place is one greater than the
temple. He was the true temple standing
in that physical temple. And they didn't even know it.
And then secondly, the sanctuary is the holiest of holies. That's
where it is. It's where God dwells in heaven.
That's the holiest of holies. And Christ is that mercy seat
in the holiest of holies where God promises He'll meet with
us. Christ Jesus. He said in Exodus 25, 22, He said, there I will meet with
thee and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat. You know, I've showed you this
before that picture of Christ. Christ is that ark in whose heart
the law was. He's the mercy seat, the propitiation
for our sin. God said, in him I'll meet with
you in the holiest of holies. in God's presence. That's what
Hebrews 10 was telling. We can enter in now through Christ
our High Priest through His blood. And then the sanctuary is the
congregation He's assembled. It's His church where He's assembled
to worship Him publicly. You know that God blesses us. He blesses His people wherever
we are. He blesses you when you're studying at home or when you
bow before Him at home. but God promised to bless his
people publicly where we are assembled, where he's assembled
us. Listen to this from Exodus 20, 24. He said, in all places
where I record my name, I will come unto thee and I will bless
thee. He promised that. Where He's
assembled His people, He'll come and He'll bless His people. You
know, the stars in Revelation, when He's speaking to the churches,
the stars represent His preachers, and the candlestick represents
the local assembly. that He's assembled. I'm not
talking about just any assembly. We're talking about those Christ
is sanctified in the Spirit, that He's given hearts to come
together and drawn us together and assembled us as the local
congregation. That's what I'm talking about.
And in Revelation, John, Christ was speaking to the churches,
and this is what John was shown. He said, in the midst of the
seven candlesticks, I saw one likened to the Son of Man. Clothed
with a garment down to the foot and girded about the palms with
a golden girdle, Christ was in the midst of the candlesticks.
He said, Revelation 2.1, unto the angel of the church of Ephesus
write, These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars
in his right hand, the preachers of his churches, he said, who
walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. Where he's
assembled his people, God promised a special blessing that he will
meet with his people there. That's his promise. That's His
promise. It's public worship, gathering
together to worship God in public, is more important than anything
else we do in this world. Because God's promised, I'll
bless you right there. I'll bless you there. Now, let's
go back to verse 1. What is it to truly worship God? What is it? He says, behold,
bless ye the Lord. It means praise ye the Lord. It means worship Him in spirit
and in truth. You know what worship is? What
worship means in Scripture is to bow down. To bow down. If you came into the room where
there was a king, you wouldn't walk in there all bowed up and
cocky. You'd come in there and hit your
face at his feet. That's what it is to worship
God. You come into the presence of the Holy God and you bow down
at His feet in the new heart and you give Him glory and praise
Him for doing all the works in salvation. That's what worship
is. Go with me to 1 Chronicles 16.
I can't read this whole thing, but I'm going to read most of
it. Christ is the one who gave David this word to give to us. And I encourage you to read it
all when you get home. And I want you to focus on how
much is spoken of the Lord. This is what we're to preach,
this is what we're to sing. True worship is to speak of God,
and His works, and His covenant, and His mercy, and everything
that He's done to save us. That's what we're to preach,
and that's true worship. Giving Him the glory and the
praise. Look at 1 Chronicles 16 verse
7. And on that day, David delivered
first this psalm to thank the Lord into the hand of Asaph and
his brethren. Now listen to this. Give thanks
unto the Lord, call upon his name. make known His deeds among
the people. Sing unto Him, sing psalms unto
Him, talk ye of all His wondrous works. Glory ye in His holy name. Let the heart of them rejoice
that seek the Lord. Seek the Lord in His strength.
Seek His face continually. Remember His marvelous works
that He hath done. His wonders and the judgments
of His mouth. All you seed of Israel, His servant,
you children of Jacob, His chosen ones. He is the Lord our God. His judgments are in all the
earth. Be ye mindful always of His covenant,
the word which He commanded to a thousand generations, even
of the covenant which He made with Abraham. and of his oath
unto Isaac, and hath confirmed the same to Jacob for a law,
and to Israel for an everlasting covenant, saying, Unto thee will
I give the land of Canaan the lot of your inheritance, when
you will but few even a few strangers in it. When they went from nation
to nation, and from one kingdom to another people, he suffered
no man to do them wrong. Yet he reproved kings for their
sake, saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets
no harm. Sing unto the Lord. all the earth,
show forth from day to day His salvation." You see, this is
worship. This is what we're to be preaching
and bowing down and praising God for His works. Read on verse
24, "...declare His glory among the heathen." His marvelous works
among all the nations, for great is the Lord, and greatly to be
praised. He also is to be feared above
all gods, for all the gods of the people are idols, but the
Lord made the heavens. Look at verse 29. Give unto the
Lord the glory due to his name. Bring an offering, come before
Him, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. The offering
He tells us to bring is the calves of our lips, praising Him, honoring
Him. You see that? Look at verse 31.
Here's what we're to declare. Let all men say among the nations,
the Lord reigneth. The Lord reigneth. Look at verse
34. All give thanks unto the Lord,
for He is good. Give thanks to Him, for He is
good, for His mercy endureth forever. And say, He saved us,
O God, of our salvation, and gathered us together, and delivered
us from the heathen, that we may give thanks to Thy holy name,
and glory in Thy praise. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel
forever and ever. And all the people said amen
and they praised the Lord. That's what true worship is,
brethren. You know, we're worshipers of
symbol and they talk about their works and what they're doing
for their helpless little God. How they let him save them and
all the things they're doing for their God. That's not what
God's people gather to do. We gather to declare God's wonderful
works. And what He's done for us, what
do you have that you didn't receive? What do you have that wasn't
freely given to you of God? Everything's of Him. So we speak
of His wonderful works, we make known His deeds among the people. We speak of His covenant, Christ
Jesus. We declare, thy God reigneth. That's what we're preaching.
We thank God for the fact that His mercy endures forever. Aren't
you thankful His mercy endures forever? The Spirit of God, I
want you to go to Ephesians 1. I know you know this, but I want
to show you something here. The Spirit of God gave the Apostle
Paul one sentence, just one sentence, that covers everything we bless
God for. Everything we glory in God and
give God the praise for. One sentence. You realize Ephesians
1 verses 3 through 12 is one sentence. It's one sentence. I'm going to tell you something
now. There's never been a sentence in the English language ever
written as marvelous as this one sentence. Shakespeare and
all the great writers in literature have never written one sentence
that compares to this one right here. Never. And whatever, this
is it. This is the best sentence ever
written right here. Right here. This is what we praise
and thank God for. Let's start. Let's read it. First
of all, we thank Him for choosing us freely by His grace and blessing
us with all blessings in Christ in eternity. Verse 3. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,
according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy without blame before
him in love. Have you exhausted that subject
yet? Have we gotten to the point where
we're tired of talking about God's divine election of grace
in Christ and blessing us with all spiritual blessings? When we exhaust that subject,
then we'll start talking about man. Alright? When we get said all that can
be said about that, then we'll start talking about man. Let's
just talk about that. That's all there is to talk about.
his wonderful work. We bless God for predestinating
us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ. That means he
predestinated everything that would come to pass in your life
and mine and the whole world to bring you to the very point
at the very hour when God would reveal Christ to you through
the preaching of the gospel. Look here, verse 5, having predestinated
us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according
to the good pleasure of his will to the praise of the glory of
his grace. That's what worship is, praising
the glory of his grace. For he hath made us accepted
in the beloved. When you're accepted in Christ,
you ain't ever going to be unaccepted. That's the good news. We bless
God for sending His Son and redeeming us from our sin. Look, verse
7. In whom we have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of His grace. According to the riches of His
grace. Look here in verse 8. We bless him for revealing his
will to us, that God should gather all his elect together in Christ
in the end. He said, wherein he hath abounded
toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery
of his will according to his good pleasure which he purposed
in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might
gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in
heaven and which are on earth, even in him. He's not gonna lose
one. He's going to gather us all together
in Christ in the end. That's what He's going to do.
That's His purpose. And He revealed that will to us. And then we
bless God for giving us an eternal inheritance in Christ and by
Christ and with Christ. Verse 11. In whom also we've
obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the
purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His
own will. That's what He's given you an
inheritance. We bless God that He first trusted
Christ to do this whole work for us. Verse 12, that we should
be to the praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ.
He first trusted Christ. Oh, brethren. Alright, I messed
up. I see that it's two sentences.
Verse 6 ended with a period, so it's two sentences. Well,
that's the best two sentences ever written in the world. That covers everything from eternity
through time back to eternity. And every bit of it there is
declaring salvation is entirely of the Lord. It originated with
Him. It was carried out by Him. We were called and it was revealed
to us. He's keeping us and He shall
keep us and He'll bring us into eternity with Him. That's everything
that we bless Him for. That's salvation, salvations
of the Lord. Peter had a similar statement,
a little shorter. The Spirit of God gave him something
a little shorter. In 1 Peter 3.3, here's what we
bless God for. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy
hath begotten us again into a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead. to an inheritance incorruptible
and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven
for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto
salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time." They don't
leave anything in our hands. That says He did it all. And
it's sure and it's certain for those He's called. Don't you
want a salvation that's sure? I don't want a salvation that,
well, it's alright, but if you mess it up now, then you're going
to be kicked out if you mess it up. Well, I'd have messed
it up a long time ago. I want a salvation that's all
of God's grace in Christ so that it's sure, it's sure. Look at 2 Corinthians 1. We bless
God for being our comfort and comforting us in Christ and with
Christ. Look here, 2 Corinthians 1 verse
3. Blessed be God, even the Father
of our Lord Jesus, the Father of mercies and the God of all
comfort, who comforted us in all our tribulation. We may be
able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort
wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings
of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by
Christ. That's what we bless God for.
We gather together and we praise him for divine election, for
predestination, for redemption, for regeneration, for revelation,
for preservation, for saving us A to Z, speak of His marvelous
work. Bow down and worship God and
give Him the glory for saving us. That's what we're doing.
Then secondly, true worship, now you've been You've been blessed
to come and worship Him. You've been blessed to want to
give Him the glory and the honor and the praise. Sing His praises
and hear His works declared. Then we have this privilege.
God blesses us. He blesses us. Look at verse
3. Psalm 134. 3. The Lord that made heaven
and earth bless thee out of Zion. Look who the author of this blessing
is. Look who the giver of this blessing is. The Lord that made
heaven and earth. You reckon he's going to be able
to bless whoever he's pleased to bless? He made heaven and
earth. Think of the condescension. I'm
like David now. When I consider the stars, the
work of your fingers, this little finger work you did, and all
this creation you made. What is man that thou art mindful
of him? This is amazing. But He that
made heaven and earth says, I'm going to bless my people. He
blesses the side of Zion. That's His heavenly throne. That's
where He's seated in glory. And He's going to bless His church,
Zion, in this earth. If we're able to bow down in
the heart and truly worship Him in spirit and in truth, if we're
able to, to lift up the holy hands of our heart, empty-handed
and with nothing but Christ alone, trusting Him, believing Him,
glorying in Him. If you're able to do that, He
blessed you to make you be able to do that, to truly worship
Him. And He promises then, as you
bow and praise Him and give Him the glory, He'll continue to
bless you. He said, blessed are your eyes for they see and your
ears for they hear. Do you know what a blessing it
is to be able to see the Lord in the Scripture and hear the
Gospel and rejoice? What a blessing of God! And the
Lord sure to bless each of His saints who worship Him through
faith in His Son because Christ has put away our sin, He's made
us righteous. We're righteous. We're the righteousness
of God in Him. David said, Blessed are they
whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed
is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. He'll never charge
us with sin. He put it away. And since our
Lord laid down His life and made us complete, since He's united
us with Him in the new birth, sanctified us in Himself, He'll
preserve you. Listen, let's look back at Psalm
127. Psalm 127, I mean Psalm 121, look at verse 7. The Lord shall preserve thee
from all evil, he shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve
thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth even
forevermore. You're going to fall, we're going
to fall, we don't want to. We don't want to, but we're going
to. But listen to this word from
Psalm 34, 15. The eyes of the Lord are upon
the righteous, those He made righteous. His ears are open
unto their cry. The righteous cry, and the Lord
heareth and delivereth them out of all their troubles. Many are
the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out
of them all. That's His blessing to us. Listen
to Psalm 37, 23. The steps of a good man are ordered
by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he
shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with
his hand. David said, I've been young,
and now I'm old, yet I've not seen the righteous forsaken,
nor his seed begging bread. He's ever merciful and lendeth,
and his seed is blessed. God's seed, his children are
blessed. This is the covenant. He said,
praise him for the covenant. Don't ever forget the covenant.
This was God's covenant promise to Abraham. This is God's covenant
to all Abraham's spiritual children, you and me, who he's given hearts
to believe. He said, surely, blessing I will
bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. That's his promise. I think of our Savior's Beatitudes.
Let's go there, Matthew 5. Matthew 5. These are things that
we don't necessarily consider blessings, but they're what our
Lord said are blessings. God our Savior said these are
blessings, and they are. Listen. Matthew 5, 3. Are you poor in spirit? Blessed
are the poor in spirit. You're only that way because
God made you that way. Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that
mourn, for they shall be comforted. You don't, you mourn things this
world don't mourn. The world mourns when things
get taken from them. Or when things, they don't get
their way. You know what we mourn? We mourn our sin because it's
against our Savior. And you're blessed. you'll be
comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they
shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger
and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. These
blessings, these are not some blessings on some of God's people.
These are what all God's people are and have at all times. Right
here. These are the things we all are
at all times. Blessed are they which hunger
and thirst after Christ our righteousness. And we hunger and thirst to be
more righteous in our walk and in our talk and in all that we
do. For they shall be filled, he
said. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
You know when you're going to be less apt to judge and condemn
your brethren? The more you know how much mercy
you need from God, and the more you know how merciful He is to
you every day. That's when you'll be merciful. Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God. That's what this lifting up these
hands are. Holy hands. Pure in heart. Pure
in heart. That's when you'll see God. The
pure in heart. Blessed are the peacemakers.
You know how He made you a peacemaker? He made you to see how Christ
made peace for you, laid down His life, made peace for His
people, and He makes you a peacemaker. For they shall be called the
children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted
for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you
and say all manner of evil against you and shall say all falsely
for my sake. See, those are all blessings
of God. That's not what the world considers to be blessing. Everything that's involved in
the poor in spirit, the mourning, the meek, the hungry and thirsting,
all of those things is We can't put any confidence in our flesh.
We don't have any confidence in our works and our flesh whatsoever.
God's made you see, you can't. And then He shows you, all these
blessings you're going to get is all from the Lord blessing
you, providing it all for you. Our perseverance and faith to
the end will be by the blessing of God. He said in Psalm 84,
for blessed are they that dwell in thy house, they will be still
praising thee, Selah. Stop and think about that. I
said to you, three, four years there, I preached this many times,
over and over and over, and I said, when the dust of division settles,
God's people are still going to be in his house, praising
the Lord. Because that's God's promise.
That's God's promise. Blessed are those servants whom
the Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching. If you're still
watching and you're still looking for the Lord when He comes, you
know why you did it? Because you've been blessed of
the Lord to wait and watch. What's going to happen when He
comes? Verily I say unto you, He shall gird Himself and make
them to sit down to meet, and He will come forth and He will
serve them. Can you just imagine what a day
that'll be? That's going to be some kind of table, I'll tell
you that. And all his people are seated, and he comes forth
and serves his people. I pray the Lord never let us
cease to stand in awe and reverence that God has brought us into
his house and given us hearts to really bow and worship him
and know him and praise him and give him all the glory. That
is a privilege that you can't get better. You cannot get better
than that. And that's what God's given you,
his people. You cannot get better. You could be the most powerful
man in the world with all the money in the world and people
at your beck and call doing whatever. So what? If you don't have Christ,
you're going to leave this world butt naked just like you came
into it. The blessing is having Christ in all his blessings. being accepted in Him, and I
pray He keep us ever thankful for these blessings upon us,
giving Him all the glory and all the honor. And if we're His,
we will, because He's gonna keep blessing us. He's gonna keep
blessing us. You see, what a privilege. What
a privilege. Bless ye the Lord. All right,
Brother Greg.