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Eric Lutter

The Kingdom of God Established in our Hearts

Psalm 122; Romans 14:17
Eric Lutter May, 30 2021 Audio
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Psalms

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Good morning. We're going to
open the second service singing number 232 in the hardback, 232,
When I See the Blood. Christ our Redeemer died on the
cross, died for the sinner, paid all his dues. Sprinkle your soul
with the blood of the Lamb, and I will pass, will pass over you
when I see the blood, when I see the blood. When I see the blood,
I will pass, I will pass over you. Chiefest of sinners, Jesus will
save All He has promised that He will do Wash in the fountain
open for sin And I will pass, will pass over you When I see
the blood When I see the blood When I See the blood, I will
pass, I will pass over you. Judgment is coming, all will
be there. Each one receiving, just sleep
is due. Hide in the savings, in cleansing
blood. And I will pass, will pass over
you. When I see the blood, when I
see the blood, when I see the blood, I will pass, I will pass
over you. Oh, great compassion, oh, boundless
love, oh, loving kindness, faithful and true, find peace and shelter
under the blood, and I will pass, I will pass over you. see the blood, when I see the
blood, when I see the blood, I will pass, I will pass over
you. Our second hymn will be Amazing
Grace, number 236 Amazing Grace. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound That saved a wretch like me I once was lost, was blind,
but now I see. Was grace that taught my heart
to fear And grace my fears relieved How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed Through many dangers, toils,
and snares, I have already come. His grace hath brought me safe
thus far, And grace will lead me home. And we've been there
10,000 years, bright shining as the sun. We've no less days
to sing God's praise than when we first begun. Thank you. You may be seated. Morning everybody turn with me
to Psalm 80 Psalm chapter 80 Give ear, O shepherd of Israel,
thou that leadest Joseph like a flock, thou that dwellest between
the cherubims, shine forth. Before Ephraim and Benjamin and
Manasseh, stir up thy strength and come and save us. Turn us
again, O God, and cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved. O Lord God of hosts, how long
will thou be angry against the prayer of thy people? Thou feedest
them, with the bread of tears, and give us them tears to drink
in great measure. Thou makest us a strife upon
our neighbors, and our enemies laugh among themselves. Turn
us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine, and
we shall be saved. Thou hast brought a vine out
of Egypt. Thou hast cast out the heathen
and planted it. thou preparest room before it,
and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land.
The hills were covered, the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof
were like the goodly cedars. She sent out her boughs unto
the sea, and her branches unto the river. Why hast thou then
broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way
do pluck her? The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the
wild beast of the field doth devour it. Return, we beseech
thee, O God of hosts. Look down from heaven, and behold,
and visit this vine. And the vineyard which thy right
hand hath planted, and the branch thou hast made as strong for
thyself, it is burned with fire, it is cut down. They perish at
the rebuke of thy countenance. Let thy hand be upon the man
of thy right hand, upon the man of thy right hand and upon the
son of man whom thou made a strong for thyself. So will not we go
back from thee quicken us and we will call upon thy name. Turn
us again, O Lord, God of hosts, cause thy face to shine and we
shall be saved. Let's pray. Father, we again come to you
thankful this morning for a place to come to hear the gospel and
for time spent with brethren, and for the place you've given
us to meet and a pastor that you've sent us. And father, we
just ask that you open our eyes and our ears and hearts this
morning to hear the message that you would bring to us. And father,
we ask that you be with all those that couldn't be with us being
ill or traveling. And father, we ask that you just
watch over and care for us in Christ's name. a good week a pretty good week
so far and I've been in communication with many of you this week and
I received a phone call on Thursday morning that was a real a real
blessing to to me it stands out in in my mind and that's because
the Lord my brother from a dear brother and and and the Lord
gave us both a gracious spirit toward one another. It was, I
believe the word is palpable, where you could just touch it
and feel it. It was a real present work of
the Lord in it. And as I was speaking with my
brother, I was thinking about that verse which says, how good
and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. And I began thinking of that
verse. I was hearing that verse in my
mind, and I was thinking, that's Psalm 122. And that's actually
our text, Psalm 122 this morning. But when I looked it up, I found
that's actually Psalm 133, verse one, and not Psalm 122. When
I read verse 1 of Psalm 122, it says, I was glad when they
said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord. And I believe that I will never
be able to read that verse the same as I once did, but it's
made precious to me, more precious to me, and the Lord laid that
on my heart and gave me this word for this people, this body
of believers that he's assembled together in this area of Springfield,
Missouri. This psalm, as I read it, is
a psalm about the Lord's kingdom, the kingdom of our God and his
building of his church. It's his kingdom, which he is
actively working in and blessing and forming, creating, doing
all things necessary for her and for her edification. and
for her learning and instruction and he edifies his body in love. And so we see in this how that
our God works and establishes his people in righteousness and
peace and in joy of the Holy Ghost. Now our Lord has given
his people a great blessing in having brethren. and having brethren
to fellowship. And Paul, over in Titus 1.4,
he calls it our common faith. It's our common faith. There's
things that we all, as brethren, have and share in common, in
this common faith. And he says in it, we receive
grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ, our Savior. And so I'm looking at this Psalm
122 and I'm reading it and praying and reading it and I'm writing
notes and realizing this thing needs some structure. I need
an outline. I need an outline so that the
people can hear it and receive it more clearly and see the beauties
of what the Lord's showing me here. And I was the study brought
to Romans 14 verse 17 and when I read I said that's it that's
the outline that that is going to help us to hear what the Lord's
teaching us in Psalm 122 and the verse there the whole verse
says we're not going to use the whole verse but it says Romans
14 17 for the kingdom of God is not meat and drink It's not
about getting bogged down in offenses, whether it's offenses
given or it's offenses received. That's not what the kingdom of
God is about. Rather, he tells us that the
kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy
Ghost. And I thought, I read that and
I said, that's the outline. righteousness, peace, and joy
in the Holy Ghost, so that we see our God working in our midst,
establishing His people in the righteousness of His Son, Jesus
Christ, and in establishing peace in our hearts, delivering us
from all enemies that would seek to destroy and harm God's work
and His people, and He gives us joy, joy in the fellowship
of brethren. He does that in the hearts of
his people. And so that's what we'll use
as our outline for Psalm 122, that the kingdom of God is righteousness
and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. I've titled this, The
Kingdom of God Established in Our Hearts. And so we're gonna
begin there with righteousness because the kingdom of God is
established in righteousness. One of the truths that unites us, one of
the things that is true of all of us is that in the kingdom
of God, there's not a single person, a single child in his
kingdom who is not righteous. who's not made righteous by the
Lord Jesus Christ. There's none in here without
that wedding garment obtained for us by the Son, by the Lord
Jesus Christ. That does not mean that any of
us are here because we were born without sin. We all came forth
of our parents being born in sin and in trespasses. It's also not that any of us
got good at our religion. We didn't get better and better
in doing certain things where we began to reduce our sins that
we commit in the flesh until eventually they were all gone
and we arrived at this holiness that we worked for ourselves.
That's not how we're established in righteousness. None of us
went to classes or ceremonies in which someone like a priest
performed some things with us and then was able to declare
us at the end that you're now all absolved from your sins. It's not through religious sacrifices
and ceremonies. were all made righteous by the
blood of the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. We've all been purchased
by His blood and made righteous by our Lord Jesus Christ. And
so David says in the second verse of Psalm 122, he says, of he
and his brethren, our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. There is a relationship established
between us all. Every one of us is a sinner saved. We're a sinner saved by the grace
of our God. We're born into His kingdom,
the kingdom of God, born by the precious seed of our Savior,
born by His blood. Satisfaction has been made unto
our God by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. We are his purchased
possession, and our feet are now firmly planted, standing
on that very hope that he's our righteousness, he's my holiness,
he's my acceptance with the Father. And that's worked in every one
of the hearts of God's children. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 3.11
saying, other foundation can no man lay, then that is laid,
which is Jesus Christ. That's the foundation upon which
our feet are firmly planted, not by the strength of my own
grip, not by the wisdom of my mind or my heart, but by him. He's taken our feet together
and planted them firmly in the gospel of our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ. So we're all one in Him. And
that's a very unifying truth because it puts us all at the
same level in the dust before our God. None of us can exalt
ourselves over another. We're all guilty of sin. We're
all guilty of offending our God and trespassing His holiness. And so he's wiped that all away
he's made us all the same in fact he says that in his word
he's concluded us all under sin that he may be gracious to all
that's that that's why we're all leveled and it's all known
to us that we're all guilty sinners in need of his grace because
that way we all come to through the same way, through the blood,
through the body of Jesus Christ. Jew and Gentile, there isn't
some who were born holy, who came in one door, and others
who were sinners saved by his grace, so that we're lower than
those who figured it out. We're all sinners in need of
his grace. We all come through the blood. There's one gate,
and it's Jesus Christ. That's how we all enter this
kingdom of our God. All right, now David adds in
verse three, this observation of Jerusalem. He says, Jerusalem
is built as a city that is compact together. It's a city that's
built. and it's built by the Lord Jesus
Christ. He noted, Paul did in 1 Corinthians
3, 9, he noted that Paul, he said, we're ministers and laborers
together with God. We're laboring and ministering
this thing, but he says, you're God's husbandry. You're God's
husbandry. He's the one who planted each
one of his children in the desired location. He planted each of
you where he would have you to be. And just like a husbandman,
a gardener, goes in and he puts plants in certain places and
he snips off certain branches and he fertilizes here and does
certain things over there to bring forth the fruit that he
seeks. So your God is building each
of you as one body for his own purpose to his own glory. And then Paul said it this way,
in Ephesians 4.16, now try and listen to this verse. He says
that we are a body fitly joined together and compacted. I'd say
he has Psalm 122, verse 3 in mind, that we're a city built
compact together. But he goes on saying that we're
joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth
according to the effectual working in the measure of every part
make it increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in
love. That's a lot. And I want to give
you an illustration that I think will help you to hear what Paul
is teaching us and what he's saying in that verse. That's
Ephesians 4, 16. I found as I get older that I've
noticed the connection of what I put into my body and how my
body responds to what I put into it. So based on certain foods
that I eat, I can cause some inflammation. in my back, in
my shoulders, I get hurt more easily if I eat garbage, and
I might feel my knee twinge or ache, and so if I have something
to do in the garden, for example, say there's some labor that I
see that I know this is going to take some effort from me,
and if I go in there with pains and aches in my body and inflammation
and feeling bad, I'm much more tenuous and hesitant about just
going at it because when I do, I usually tweak it and make something
that's already bad worse. and so I'm a lot more nervous
about it. But when I'm eating good, healthy
things, I don't feel that inflammation, and I just go right at it, and
I do what needs to be done, I come out, maybe I'm a little sore,
maybe I'm a little tired, but the work's done. I don't have
any lasting pains and effects from it. Well, that's what it's
like in the body. when we are feeding upon the
Lord Jesus Christ. When we hear the bread from heaven,
and we're blessed to consume and feed upon His grace, and
the accomplished effectual work of our Savior, just hearing that
declared and what He's done for us, We're edified. We're strengthened. We're fit
for the labor. We're ready to go out. If there's
something that needs to be done, there's a willing heart. There's
someone right there who says, I'll do it. I'll gladly do it. No hesitancy. Just everybody
going at it because we're feeding upon the bread of heaven rather
than those dead, empty husks of religion that drain us. that make us feel our infirmities
and sickness and that we're not strong. We all do better when
we're hearing of the accomplished work of our Savior and what He's
done for us, and it rejoices our hearts. You've all testified
that to me, that that's what blesses your heart, is hearing
of what your Savior has done and accomplished for His people.
That's our strength, that's our joy, that's our hope and our
confidence, the Lord Jesus Christ. So Jerusalem is builded as a
city that is compact together. It's strong and it's fit in the
Lord. Verse four, whither the tribes
go up, the tribes of the Lord unto the testimony of Israel
to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. We see there individuals
joined together as local assemblies, and they're gathered, it says,
unto the testimony of Israel. That's just a beautiful way of
phrasing, we're gathered unto the gospel of our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ. He's the banner under whom we
are assembled. We're in the Lord's army. We're
in the Lord's city. We are the Lord's people. and
we gather together unto the testimony of Israel. I am what I am by
the grace of God. That's our hope that he is merciful
and gracious to gather us together and feed us again that bread
of life, that gospel, that living hope and faith which he reveals
in the hearts of every one of his children. and because he
does that, we give our Lord thanks. We give thanks unto the name
of the Lord. All right, now verse five. The
reason why this is such a blessing is because there are set thrones
of judgment, the thrones of the house of David. Our Lord reveals
to us that what he's done for us is not done in darkness or
in an evil way. It's all done in righteousness.
The justice, the holiness of our God must be upheld. He will not dishonor His name.
He will not dishonor His holiness. Justice must be satisfied. We're told in Ezekiel 18, 4 that
the soul that sinneth, it shall die. The soul that sinneth, it
shall die. And every child of God is a sinner
in need his deliverance and need of his salvation and so our God
made perfect provision for our need sending his son and we're
told that God made his soul an offering for sin Isaiah 53 10
God made His soul an offering for sin, to put away our sin. He died our death, satisfying
the justice of God. He pleased the Father well by
the sacrifice of Himself, having made atonement for our sins,
delivering us from the just condemnation of God, because all the righteousness
He requireth of us, it's been met and satisfied in the Son,
Jesus Christ, so that by his work, his labor, the pleasure
of the Lord, that we should be redeemed, that we should be,
as people, the pleasure of the Lord, prospered in his hand. It's accomplished, brethren.
He did it. There's thrones. in the for judgment
in in the kingdom but for our judgment it's all been met in
the lord jesus christ we're washed and clean and white as snow before
our god he sees us robed in the precious righteousness of his
son Jesus Christ. We're washed in the blood of
our Savior. So justice is satisfied, the
children are made perfectly righteous by Christ, our successful Redeemer. So that there is the kingdom
of God is righteousness. We are established in righteousness,
brethren. If the work is done, God is pleased
with us in righteousness. This brings us to our next point,
beholding peace. The kingdom of God, we are told,
is peace. He's revealed it in our hearts,
it's peace. Now because this body, because
this city, because this kingdom is the Lord's work, David says
to us in verse six, pray, pray for the peace of Jerusalem. They
shall prosper that love thee. All right, don't be reluctant,
don't be afraid to pray for Jerusalem's peace. And no, I do not mean
that political city over in the Middle East. We're talking about
the true children of God. We're talking about the city
of the Savior. We're talking about heavenly
Jerusalem, that spiritual city of our Lord, the bride of Christ,
His church. to whom he's gathered you as
people into that one and the same body of which all believers
are a member of. We pray for her peace and are
given strong assurances in it that God has defeated all our
foes. There's not an enemy yet standing
that we have to defeat. He's defeated all our foes. He's
defeated our sin. He's defeated death. He's defeated
the enemy of our souls. He's defeated every enemy and
continues to prevail for us, brethren. So we pray for peace,
knowing that no enemy shall trouble us from without, no enemy can
destroy our peace within. It can't be done. The Lord. is
our God. He has triumphed gloriously over
all our enemies. Now it says there in verse 7
to this end, peace be within thy walls and prosperity within
thy palaces. There's a beautiful visual that's
given to us in scripture about these walls. We're in the city
of our God, and you can look out, and you can see your enemies
out there. You can see them out there. They're
defeated. They cannot triumph over us or conquer us. And the
visual that your God gives to you in scripture is that the
walls, the reason why you can see the enemy there is because
the wall isn't there. There's no physical wall separating
you from your enemy. We have a better wall, a more
sure wall, a more certain security and protection. It's called salvation. Those are the walls of God's
people. That's why you can look out there
and you can see those enemies, but they can't touch you. There's
nothing physical. There's no physical barrier between
you and the enemy, but the enemy cannot conquer you. He cannot
defeat you. He cannot overcome your heart. You are the Lord's. Salvation
is the city that your God has placed your feet in. Turn over
to Isaiah 26, and we see that there. Isaiah 26, verse one. What power of our God that He
doesn't need to put a physical geographical separation between
you and the enemy. He just put you behind salvation's
walls and they can't touch you. Isaiah 26.1 says, in that day
shall this song be sung in the land of Judah. We have a strong
city. Salvation will God appoint for
walls and bulwarks. Open ye the gates, because the
enemy can't penetrate it. What harm is it to open the gates
and declare freely to all, come on in. Christ has made it so
that his people are righteous. He's cleansed all his people
with his blood, declared full and free salvation in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Look to him, rest in him. He is our peace and confidence
with God. Open ye the gates, he says, to
declare that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth May enter
in. May enter in all you that love
Christ, that hear his glorious voice, that are sinners who cannot
save themselves, enter. Come on in. This is right where
God places all his people whom he's revealed their hope in Christ. He gives it to them. It says, verse three, thou wilt
keep him in perfect peace. whose mind is stayed on thee,
because he trusteth in thee. We can't trust our own hearts,
but we can trust him. We can trust our God. He's accomplished
it. He's got everything in his hand. He's given us his word. Trust
ye in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting
strength. That's our encouragement, brethren,
knowing that I can't save myself, I can't keep my own heart, but
he's promised to do it all. He has done it all, given me
assurances and confidence in his son, Jesus Christ. Then it says, our Lord Jesus
Christ is seated upon the throne within her palaces. Within the
palaces of his city, Christ is seated there, and we behold his
wisdom. We behold his workings. We behold
his word going forth and accomplishing everything he promises to accomplish
in our hearts and in the midst of his people. We see and know
This is of God. He's the one who's commanding
and ruling and reigning perfectly from the palaces within the gates
where he's put his people. He is our God and King. Even Israel, when they were brought
out of Egypt, They saw dangers. They saw many obstacles and evils
come against them, but they saw over and over and over in it
how that God sustained them and provided for them in the wilderness. And they said in Exodus 15, 11,
and it's what he draws from each of us. It says, who is like unto
thee, O Lord, among the gods? None of man's idols does this
for them. Who is like Thee, glorious in
holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? Your God to this
day is still performing wonders and miracles, commanding and
bringing these things forth from the palaces within the gates
of His people, for He dwells in our midst. Now, we're coming
up to verses eight and nine. If it hasn't been clear who's
directing our hearts to pray for the Lord, the Lord's people,
to pray for his work in the midst of his people and for our brethren,
it becomes more evident here in verses eight and nine that
this is Christ himself. This is the will of Christ himself
and he works it in our hearts. Look at verse eight. Psalm 122,
for my brethren and companions sakes, I will now say, peace
be within you. That's the word of your Lord.
That's the benediction, the good word that Christ speaks to you,
his people. Peace be within you. He speaks it into our hearts.
He gives it to us because He loves us, and He's formed us
for His own purpose, for His own glory. He's the one ruling
in our hearts, saying, you've nothing to fear. I'm doing everything. Ah, trust me, He'll give you
everything you need, because it's already given in the Lord
Jesus Christ. When He wills a thing, it shall
be according to His word, and He says, peace, be within thee."
Now, in confirmation of that word, confirmation of what he
speaks to us, he promises that whatever he does, whether it
be a refinement, whether it be a trouble, whether it be a contrary
wind, any blessing that he gives to his people, whatever rolls
in in Providence, he assures us it's being done, it's coming
to pass for our good. That's why he brings it. Look
at verse 9, it's exactly what he says. Because of the house
of the Lord our God, I will seek thy good. He's saying, because
you're my people, you can rest in this truth, I'm seeking your
good. In everything that comes, every
adversity, That comes against you and every blessing that blows
against your back moving you forward. It's all for your good. I'm seeking your good brethren,
so Our Lord he he came he purchased the people of and he's establishing
all these blessings and joys in our hearts with peace in the
Holy Ghost. He's reconciled us to the Father. He establishes peace in the heart
and in the midst of his people so that we are assured that he
really truly is ruling and reigning over all things. And that just
like he said in his word, this is what he's worked in our hearts,
that we know that all things work together for good to them
that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."
So the kingdom of God, he does this because the kingdom of God
is peace it's peace it's righteousness it's peace all right now we come
to our final point in the outline for the kingdom of god is joy
in the holy ghost it's joy in the holy ghost david i want to
go back up to verse one david says i was glad when they said
unto me let us go into the house of the lord let us go and Worship
together as brethren as one body one people in the Lord Let's
go worship our God now We've seen it this house is established
in righteousness the righteousness of Jesus Christ He works and
establishes peace in our hearts, and now it's gonna sound like
a lot I'm gonna give you four things, but I'll be brief. It's
four things of why it's a joy for brethren and for this people
to go together and worship the Lord. Our particulars and our
experiences that we go through, they may differ, but there's
four things that the Lord, by his Holy Spirit, establishes
in every heart of his children, thus making it a complete joy
to come and be gathered with his people and be so thankful
when a brother in Christ says, come, let's go worship the Lord
together. Let's go seek our God. First, every child of God knows
he's a sinner. I said this before, but it's
good to repeat it. Every child of God knows he's
a sinner. When my God found me, he found
me in sin. He found me helpless and unable
to save myself. He, in grace and mercy, stooped
down. He took me up, washed me in his
blood, and swaddled me in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
And that's true of every one of you. Every one of his people. We were all found sinners, but
by the grace of God were sinners saved. That's the first one.
Second, every believer is taught that we are unable of ourselves
to please our God, to come to God, to be turned to God and
seek Him and to cry out to Him. We're unable in this flesh to
obey Him and to believe Him. by the strength of this flesh,
or in religion, by works of dead religion. David said, well, the
Psalm 130, verse three says, if thou, Lord, shouldest mark
iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? We know that by the deeds
of the law, no flesh shall be justified. And of a truth, we
can't even sanctify ourselves by the deeds of the law. We're
sanctified by the blood of Jesus Christ. And so, there's no point
for any of us to exalt ourselves over another. We're all sinners.
We're all desperately in need of His grace every day. Every day, continually. That's
how we're saved by His grace. Alright, so we're all sinners,
and we're all continually being saved by His grace. Third, all
believers. have a genuine desire to be saved
by the grace of our God in spirit and in truth. He gives that. His people have a genuine desire. Knowing it's of Him, we desire,
Lord, save me in mercy, in spirit, in truth. We want to be saved
by a genuine work of His grace and mercy. Every one of us wants
to be saved. We want to know that the Lord
has done this. The Lord's worked this grace
and salvation in my heart. We all want to be found not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but be found in
the righteousness of my Lord Jesus Christ. We know God is
true. We know his Christ is true and
that he saves his people. We all want to be in that beloved.
We want to be in that beloved family of God, not on the outside. Jeremiah 29, 13 said, and ye
shall seek me and find me when ye search for me with all your
heart. And one thing I found to be true
of the heart of every child of God is our prayer is God, be
merciful to me, a sinner, be merciful to me, a sinner and
work that perfect work We know that people deceive themselves
all the time. We know people get caught up in dead religion
all the time. And if we are saved in this beloved
family, it's by His grace. God be merciful to me, a sinner. All right, now fourth, every
believer looks to Jesus Christ for everything pertaining righteousness,
and holiness and godliness. We all are given, made by the
Spirit of God to look to Jesus Christ, knowing that that's where
our God looks. Everything needed is in Jesus
Christ alone. And that's where He's turned
our hearts to look to Him. By looking to Christ, it means
we're looking away from self. We're looking away from our walk. We're looking away from our works
and our thoughts and our experiences and all the things that men and
women trust in, in religion. We're looking away from them
and looking to the blessing of Jesus Christ. We want to hear,
we're forsaking self that we might hear, what does my husband
say? What does my Lord say? What is
he telling me? What does he say is right? What's his blessed word saying
to me today? All believers look to Jesus Christ
alone for everything that God requires trusting that he's provided
everything for me already in himself. It's all done. My God
needs nothing more from me. So the whole communion or the
whole of our common faith is found and can be summed up in
Hebrews 12, 2, which says, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured
the cross, seeing his people, his beloved bride whom he loves,
endured the cross, despising the shame of it all, and is now
set down at the right hand of the throne of God. He's pleased with his inheritance,
you his inheritance, he rejoices in you, and he gives us joy in
our hearts for him, and that we are in the beloved with his
people, who say, come, worship the Lord with me. I was glad. What child of God wouldn't be
glad? So four things. We're all sinners
saved. We're all continually dependent
upon his grace. We all want to be found. He gives
us that desire to be found in the beloved of the Lord. And we're all looking to Jesus
Christ alone for salvation. That's the work, the joyful work
of the Spirit of God in every child of his that he places in
this kingdom. So we're glad when they, when
those brethren say to us, let us go into the house of the Lord. I pray he bless that word to
your hearts and every time you read it, just remember what a
joy, Lord, that you should count me among that blessed people
because in Christ alone is our salvation. Amen. Let's close
in prayer. Our gracious Lord, Father, we
thank you for your abundance of mercy and grace, that you
should be so kind, so gracious to each one of us. We're all
sinners who cannot save ourselves. We all see the faults and the
weaknesses and the foolishness of our own hearts, Lord. Lord,
we're so thankful that none can exalt themselves over another.
but we are given by your spirit to continually look to your son.
Thank you, Lord. Thank you for your grace in us. Thank you for your grace in our
brethren. Thank you for our brethren and
thank you for a house to come and worship our God together
and knowing that it's all finished. It's all, you're satisfied. It's
all, it's all accomplished in us and for us. And we thank you
Lord for that and pray that you continue to speak peace into
our hearts, and giving us that confidence and quiet assurance,
knowing that everything you're doing is for our good. We're
amazed, Lord, we stand amazed and rejoice in your power, your
glory, your wonderful name. It's in the name of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ we pray this, and we commit the weaknesses
and the sicknesses of our brethren Lord into your hands knowing
that you are working all things for your glory and for our good.
It's in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ we pray
this. Amen. We're going to close with number
242 in the hardback, 242 Jesus I Come. I think that's a new
one for us. Out of my bondage, sorrow, and
night Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come Into Thy freedom, gladness, and
light Jesus, I come to Thee Out of my sickness into thy health,
Out of my want and into thy wealth, Out of my sin and into thyself,
Jesus, I come to thee. Out of my shameful failure and
loss, Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come. Into the glorious gain of thy
cross, Jesus, I come to thee. Out of earth's sorrows, into
thy balm, out of life's storms, and into thy calm. Out of distress to jubilant song,
Jesus, I come to Thee. Out of unrest and arrogant pride,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come. Into Thy blessed will to abide,
Jesus, I come to Thee. Out of myself to dwell in thy
love, Out of despair into raptures above, Upward foray on wings
like a dove, Jesus, I come to thee. Out of the fear and dread of
the tomb, Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come. Into the joy and light
of Thy home, Jesus, I come to Thee. Out of the depths of ruin
untold, Into the peace of the sheltering fold, Ever thy glorious
face to behold, Jesus, I come to thee. I don't know, have we sung that
one before? I haven't, I've never sung that
one. I sing it at home a lot. It's
a good one.

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Joshua

Joshua

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